


One Disastrous Day

by TenjounoTora



Series: Disastrous Day [1]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 02:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 54,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7600699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenjounoTora/pseuds/TenjounoTora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hackers, pirates, and trouble when the Thunderbirds are in danger, and no one is left to come and save them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How many Astrophysicists does it take to change a light bulb?

Chapter 1: How many Astrophysicists Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?

His hand slid smoothly over the cold silver metal control panel, feeling blindly for the button that would activate his holographic display. It was right where he knew it would be; he could walk blindly from room to room and know where every button and switch was in this place. It was his home after all. He pushed the button and brought up a keyboard typing in a set of commands which would access the mainframe and bring out of it's storage the blueprints for Thunderbird 5. A half of a moment later, the plans were displayed before him and he pushed the keyboard out of his way so he could manipulate the holographic image with his gloved hands. He zoomed in on the space station, accessing details about an internal section of the station and looked over the plans for the piece of detail he was searching for. There, he laid a finger on a junction in the crawlspace above his living quarters, that was where he needed to go. He turned on his heel, leaving the schematics floating in mid-air and walked from the command room.

“John, what are you doing?” A voice asked from a small camera that followed him down a narrow track in the ceiling.

“Have you seen my bathroom?” John asked smirking at the camera following him.

“I do not go into your living quarters. It was a rule you established.”

“And I appreciate you following that,” John laughed. It was silly, EOS had no intention of ogling at him, but for some reason he was still embarrassed if she were there when he was getting dressed or taking a shower, “A pipe burst in the bathroom, and it is quickly turning into a swimming pool.”

“I thought you liked swimming,” EOS asked.

“I do, but not in space. Even Gordon would have trouble with that,” John laughed again. He stopped in the hall before the door to his living quarters and looked up at the hatch above him. EOS' track made a small detour around it and she was now next to it looking from it to him. Realizing it was a little too high for him to jump and catch he reached over to a command pad and stopped the gravity ring. Slowly he could feel his weight leave his feet, and with a small push he had jumped easily to the ceiling. Holding onto a small bar next to the hatch to anchor himself he used the other hand to turn the lever and pull the door open. Dust exploded from the hatch causing John to cough a few times. The public image of the space station was clean and pristine, under the hatch it was stale and dusty. Without any other choice, John turned on a small flashlight, stuck it between his teeth and pulled himself in.

It had been a good thing that John had turned off the gravity. The space he was now in would have been too small for him to crawl on hands and knees. Without gravity, however, he was able to stretch himself out and pull his way to his target. The wires and tubes in the crawlspace were neatly tucked away so he had no worries of accidentally pulling on any of them, but that also meant that he had to be careful not to miss the valve he was looking for. The schematics said it was three hundred feet from the hatch, it shouldn't be too much farther. There, on the left side, he could see two levers. One had cold written in blue letters and hot written in red. Not entirely sure which pipe had busted he reached forward and pulled on the first lever. Unfortunately the only effect that had was to pull him forward. Right, so that was why he needed gravity. He found a small bare spot on the wall near the levers that he could use an an anchor point and set one hand in that spot and tried pulling on the lever again. It still did not move. Not ready to give up so easily he readjusted himself and tried again. This time it moved, a hair. He thought for a moment about leaving the crawlspace and going on the hunt for some tools, but knew that they were on the other side of the station and that he needed to get the water turned off as soon as possible. So, he tried again. This time the cold lever moved freely and he was able to bash it into the off position.

Next was the hot lever, problem was it needed to go in the other direction which would push him back unless he could find someplace to put his feet. He felt around, but the walls were covered with wires and tubes and he didn't want to accidentally knock any of that out, but also didn't have a lot of options, so he used the toe of his boot and wiggled it between a row of tubes and wires. Once he thought it was secure he used his leg to push the lever. He had thought it had moved a bit and tried to push harder with both his arms and leg when his boot slipped and he felt himself get pushed back and his shoulder get jerked since he was still holding onto the lever. Frowning he pulled himself forward and tried to wedge his boot back into the wall. Again he pushed on the lever, grunting a little as he did, and after a moment the lever moved halfway into the closed position. He pulled on his leg, trying to pull his boot free, only to find that it was actually stuck in the wiring of the wall. Cursing to himself he pulled again and was able to free it only to knock himself against one of the walls. He carefully reached up and felt his head. It stung when he touched the wound and brought back a bit of blood on his fingers. It wasn't a bad bump, just a scrape. He looked back at the hot lever and tried to pound it the rest of the way closed with the side of his hand. The only thing that accomplished, was giving him a sore hand. He then decided to move a little farther forwarded so that he was basically floating over the lever. There wasn't enough room to bring his arm down next to him, so he used his shoulder and pushed himself from the ceiling onto the lever.

“OW,” He yelled has he hit the piece of metal.

“John, are you okay?” EOS' voice echoed through the door of the hatch.

“Yeah, fine,” John grunted as he pushed himself back to see if it had worked. The hot lever had moved a bit more, and John used the side of his hand to pound it as hard as he could, which caused it to to fall firmly into the closed position. He was not going to enjoy opening those valves when that time came. Though maybe then he would remember to bring a wrench with him.

He pushed himself back down toward the hatch and pulled himself through. Using the handholds on the walls he rited himself and punched in the command to start the gravity wheel once again. Slowly his weight returned to him and he made his way into his living quarters. His room was small, but all he did was sleep there, so he didn't need a big one. There was a small dresser along one wall, the bed along the other with a reading light and a small bookcase. The bookcase had been an addition to the room after TB5's completion. John liked to read before he went to sleep, but didn't like reading off of a tablet, complaining that the light hurt his eyes after awhile. But the black on white of a real book was relaxing, and he could never resist rubbing the paper between his fingers as he read. Something about the feel of the paper on his skin made what he read more real, be it an adventure or just an old physics book.

John took the half dozen steps to the clear glass door that separated his sleeping space from his bathroom. The bathroom was small, cubical and filled halfway with water. The good news, the water wasn't rising anymore, but it wasn't lowering either. The bathroom was tiled with a drain in the middle. It was designed this way, should a pipe break the water would just drain and not seep into the floor and damage any circuity that may be hiding beneath it. But it wasn't draining. The door was water tight, so the water wouldn't leak out that way either, but that also meant that John couldn't go in and clear the drain manually. Getting quite fed up with the whole situation, John turned and left his room.

“Did you fix your problem?” EOS asked as John made his way back to the schematics in the control room.

“No.”

“Will it be fixed soon?”

“I don't know.” John was smart, really smart. He was an astrophysicist, one of the best in the world, and couldn't even fix a broken water pipe in the bathroom. He figured Virgile would have had it fixed and working by now, but there was little chance of getting that kid off the Earth. Virgile avoided space duty like the plague. It wasn't that he didn't want to help, it was that his body didn't agree with space in general. If he wasn't sick to his stomach he was complaining of vertigo or even doing both. It had been decided by all that Vergil was best left on solid ground.

John stood in front of the schematic and zoomed in on the bathroom drain. There was access to it from another crawlspace, but then he didn't really want to have the pipe torn apart when the water finally decided to drain. He stood there thinking when it suddenly hit him. There was an automatic plug in the drain that he used when he set the bathroom on automatic clean. He swiped away the old blueprints and brought up the status chart of TB5. This looked just like the blueprints, only this was an up to date status report of all moving parts of the station. He had of course tried to turn the water off from the control pad in his bedroom, but for some reason the water would not stop. That led him on the hunt for the manual shut offs in the crawlspace. John zoomed in on the bathroom, the status chart showed that the water had thankfully stopped, and also what he was hoping to expect, the plug was active. He pulled up the control panel for the bathroom and triumphantly hit the button to deactivate the plug. The little dot on the schematic turned green and John smiled.

John frowned. He stood once again in front of the door to his bathroom and the water was still waist high. He walked over to the command pad in his room and brought up the controls for the bathroom once again, it showed that the plug was once again activated. He hit the button to deactivate it and turned to look at the door. The water did not move. Looking back at the control pad it looked as if the plug was stuck. Now what was he going to do?

 

“I even looked to see if there was a hatch in the ceiling that I could go through to get into the bathroom, but no luck,” John sighed as he relayed his issue to Brains.

“No. The Machinery that c...cleans the room occupies that e...entire space,” Brains replied thinking, “What is o...odd is that plug is not s...supposed to e...e....stop the water unless the cleaning protocol is a..active. Do you know why the pipe ru..ru...broke?”

“No. Woke up to the sound of water,” John replied as he floated aimlessly, “I'm starting to think Thunderbird 5 is infected with pixies.”

“P...pixies?” Brains asked

“You know, little fairies,” Virgil provided as he walked into Brains' lab.

“I know what pixies are.”

“Hey, bro. What's up? Did you ever figure out what was up with those breakers?”

“B...breakers? John what is going on up there?”

“Like I said. Pixies,” John laughed, “It started when my lightbulb burnt out in my bedroom. I called it a night and went to bed, but the next morning when I went to get a replacement the lights in the storage room were out. So I went to check the breaker thinking that they couldn't all go out at the same time, but the breaker wasn't flipped. So, I went back with a flashlight and changed out all the bulbs.”

“Those bulbs weren't due for a change for a c...couple more y...years,” Brains mused.

“Well, they were busted, that's all I can say. I got them all changed and got my bulb for my room, but the second I replaced the one in my reading light, it blew again.”

“That is v...very strange.”

“I figured it was a bad bulb, it happens. But when I went back to the storage room, those bulbs were out too.”

“Did you look to see if the b..breakers were functioning? Maybe there was some s...sort of power surge that was slipping by them?”

“That's what I said,” Virgil pipped in, “But he had already done that by the time I had talked to him.”

“W...what did you find?”

“Not much. According to my system checks they're working fine.”

“A...are you still having issues with them now?”

“Haven't read a book for a few days if that's what you mean.”

“Has a...anything else happened,” Brains asked as he remotely connected to Thunderbird 5 to look at the system status himself.

“Well, the day before all my bagels were burnt, and I mean black. I took the toaster apart but there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it, but the second I hooked it up to station it overcooked them again. I miss my warm bagel of a morning.”

“A toaster, breakers, and a pipe br...breakage. They are not systems that are connected, but it is odd th...that they happened so close t...together,” Brains mused as he read through the status read outs which all confirmed that everything checked out.

“Wait, pipe breakage?” Virgil asked looking at his floating brother.

“My bathroom's turned into a wading pool,” John explained to his older brother.

“HA,” Virgil barked, “I bet Gordon would love the opportunity to swim in weightless water.”

“I'm surprised he hasn't tried alr...” There was a soft whump of a sound that stopped John from finishing his thought.

“John, what was that,” Brains asked typing away at his keyboard trying to find the source from his place in the lab.

“I don't know,” John mused as he too pulled up status reports only to see that everything was seemingly working perfectly.

“John,” EOS' camera zoomed into the room on her little track, “I think you need to come see this.”

“And where have you been?” John asked righting himself.

“Something about this week hasn't seemed right, but that's not important. You need to follow me.”

“I'll talk to you guys later,” John swiped the holographic image of Brains and Virgil away before they could reply.

 

“Brains, do you think these incidents are going to be a problem,” Virgil asked frowning at the place where his brother's image had once been.

“I...I don't know, Virgil. I a...agree with EOS though. Something do..doesn't seem right.”

“Do you think we should have John come down until we figure out what's going on?”

“That might be a p...possibility....”

“Brains,” John's torso once again popped into view, “I have a little bit of a problem.”

“What happened John?” Virgil asked.

“A water pipe busted in another part of the station. I went to try and shut it off at the source, but I can't get in. Something has locked me out.”

“Where did it b...bust?”

“In the med bay.”

“There is not much water in the reclaimer at any one time. It s...should run itself out soon.”

“What about the equipment,” John asked, “There's some pretty delicate stuff in there.”

“With the water floating in zero G, it should not be a pr...problem,” Brains explained as he continued to tap away at his computer, “Virgil, I think S...Scott should know of the s...s...s...”

“Ah!” Both Brains and Virgil turned just in time to see Johns picture disappear. The signal was still there, just not John.

“J..John? Are you O...Okay?”

“I'm fine,” They heard John reply and then slowly reappear on the screen, “The gravity was turned on... EOS?”

“It wasn't me John, I swear,” They could hear the AI reply in the background.

“Brains?” John asked.

“N...Not me. Th..Though I will look into it,” Brains turned back to his computer.

“I think it might be a good time for you to come back down to Earth, till we can figure out what's going on,” Virgil suggested.

“I think I agree with you,” John nodded, “I'll be there soon.”

“F.A.B,” Virgil nodded and turned off the communication, “I'll go inform Scott. We'll need to transfer control to the island till we can figure out what's going on.”

“J...just what I was g...going to suggest,” Brains smiled, but did not take his eyes off of his computer.

 

“Hey, what's going on,” Alan asked yawning as he stumbled into the lounge, “Virgil said there were ghosts on Thunderbird 5.”

“Ghosts?” Gordon asked coming up from the kitchen with his breakfast in hand, Virgil behind him.

“Yeah, spirits,” Alan replied yawning again.

“I said sprites,” Virgil corrected his brother handing him a bagel, “Eat.”

“Let me wake up first, will ya?”

“Well, I doubt it's either of those two things,” Scott laughed at his youngest brother, “But something odd is going on. John was supposed to be heading down, but the elevator hasn't budged.”

“Maybe he's packing his things, figuring it might be a long weekend,” Gordon suggested.

“John, are you there,” Scott called.

“I'm here, and stuck for the time being,” John sighed as he face appeared before his brothers, “The elevator isn't responding. It won't even let me in. And to top it off, EOS thinks these mishaps aren't accidental.”

“Not accidental, then what?” Scott asked concern seeping into him.

“She hasn't found proof, but she thinks someone might actually be hacking into Thunderbird 5.”

“Hacking into Thunderbird 5,” everyone exlaimed.

“I...I have b..been thinking along the s...same lines,” Brains announced entering the room, “I have safeguards in place, to keep things like t..these from h..happening. It l...looks like my safety's have been b..bypassed.”

“Alright, Alan, chug some coffee. You're going up to get your brother.”

“F.A.B.,” Alan perked up immediately at the chance to pilot his baby.

“And, actually, I think I'll go with you. I just have a bad feeling about this.”

“I'll be waiting,” John nodded an disappeared.

“Come on Scott, I'm rearing to go,” Alan called patting the seat next to him.

“Tracy Island, come in. This is Thunderbird Shadow. Tracy Island, can you hear me?”

“Kayo, there's some static, but we are receiving your signal,” Scott stopped and turned to the jumpy image of their friend.

“Scott... I've found... need... help...”

“Can you repeat that, you're breaking up.”

“Thunder... crash.... need.... back....”

“Kayo where are you?”

“I c...can get her l...location,” Brains announced pulling out his tablet and typing into it.

“Th... One.... back.... crash....” And then the transmission ended.

“Brains?”

“The t...transmission was being b..bounced around, but it s..seems to be originating from the I...Indian Ocean.”

"Alright, change of plans,” Scott turned and surveyed his brothers, “Gordon, you're coming with me in Thunderbird 2. Virgil, you'll go with Alan.”

“Wait, what?” Virgil gapped at Scott, “Why can't Gordon go with Alan?”

“Because I want him with me.”

“I can do anything that pipsqueak can,” Virgil argued.

“Hey, Alan is the pipsqueak not me,” Gordon huffed.

“I'm sitting right here,” Alan fumed.

“Gordon is our aquanaut. I want him with me,” Scott replied with a finality to his tone.

“I can pilot Thunderbird 4 just as well, if you don't want to,” Virgil continued to argue.

“I thought you hated Thunderbird 4, too small and cramped if I remember right,” Gordon asked.

“Better than space,” Virgil snapped.

“Scott,” John suddenly reappeared in front of them all with what looked like blood running down the side of his face, “Please tell me Thunderbird 3 is launching, things are starting to escalate rather quickly.”

“They're on their way,” Scott confirmed and then turned to his brother, “I'm sorry Virgil. Drug yourself up if you need to, but you are going with Alan. Gordon, meet you in Thunderbird 2.”

“F.A.B,” Gordon replied a little hesitantly as he edged around the fuming Virgil.

“Come on, Virg. John needs a ride,” Alan called. Virgil stomped over to the couch and flopped down his arms crossed, “Umm... just promise you'll clean up after yourself okay?”

“Any more jokes, and I promise you'll regret them.”

“O...okay,” Alan gulped. Virgil was usually one of the calmest brothers, but when his top blew they all knew to watch out. Virgil and Alan rode quietly though the docking tubes and were quickly lifted into the cockpit of Thunderbird 3. Once the seats were locked in place Alan began the pre-flight checks.

“Where is your med kit?” Virgil growled as he undid his restraints.

“Back wall to the right,” Alan replied gesturing over his shoulder. Virgil leapt from his seat and landed neatly on the hatch that lead to the rear of the ship. He kneeled down and pulled the med kit off of the wall unzipping it and digging for what he needed.

“Who packed this thing, nothing is where it should be,” Virgil grumbled.

“Umm... I dunno,” Alan replied knowing it had been Virgil who insisted on packing all of their kits so that they would all be properly done. Alan could hear him dig some more before hearing the zip of the kit and the grunt as Virgil climbed back up to his chair. Once fully strapped back in, Virgil took out the injector and pressed it to his neck under the curve of his jawbone.

“Damn, that hurts,” He grumbled again pocketing the injector into one of his many pockets, “Some for now, and some for later. Let's get this over with.”

“F.A.B.,” Alan replied finishing his checklist and initiating launch.


	2. When You're Waiting for your Ride

 

After John had finished talking to Brains and Virgil he turned off the holographic display and sighed. 

“What is wrong John?” EOS asked observing him curiously.

“Nothing, just wasn't quite ready for an Earth vacation at the moment,” John replied as he headed down the corridor to his room. He wasn't sure just how long he would be stuck on the island and wanted to make sure he had a few of his books with him, “Anyways, EOS, what were you talking about earlier?  About things not seeming right?” 

“I looked at the logs for Thunderbird 5 from this morning. There was a moment when the computer registered unusually high water pressure in your bathroom. But it was so quick that none of the systems were able to respond to it. My thought is that someone forced the systems to... how do you say it? Turn a blind eye?” 

“Are you saying someone is hacking the station,” John asked, surprise in his voice, as he stepped through the door into his room, “You can come in, I'm just packing a few things.” 

“Thank you,” EOS replied, “The same thing happened just now in the Med Bay. Plus the fact that the circuits to the water reclaimer's door are out, but the breaker is still active. The computer shouldn't be acting in that way, it's unnatural.” 

“Alright, EOS.” John shrugged a small duffle over his shoulder and made his way back into the corridor, “I know you're not going to like this, but it's just in case. I want you to gather your program and place it into the central memory core of the station. I'll then disconnect the core and bring it with me to Earth.” 

“John,” EOS had stopped in her track staring at him, “I don't like being confined like that.” 

“I know,” John turned to look up at her camera, “But if this is a hacking attempt I don't want them finding you. If they took you they could destroy you or even change you.”

“I wouldn't let them, I'll fight them.” 

“EOS, I promise, as soon as I'm on land Brains and I will find a bigger place to put you. Maybe the house computers?”   

“You promise not to keep me in there long?” 

“I promise,” John smiled as he turned and continued on. EOS followed him quietly to the airlock that connected the station with the elevator. John reached out and imputed his code to open the doors. They swished open smoothly, John stepped into the airlock, and inputed another code into the next panel. The doors behind him slid closed as the ones in front opened part of the way. John inputed an emergency code into the pad, but the doors remained partially open. He entered a diagnostic code into the panel, only for it to claim that the doors were closed and locked. Cursing to himself, he went back to the first doors and put in an override command forcing the first set of doors to open again. With a sigh of relief the doors opened smoothly.

“John, is something wrong?” EOS asked noticing he still had his books with him. 

“I can't get into the elevator.” 

“How will you get to Earth?” 

“I'll have to call for a ride,” John replied tapping on his sash to bring up a comm to the island. However before he could call for his Brothers, Scott was already calling him. 

“John, are you there,” Scott called, the lounge popping up on John's comm and he could see his other three brothers gathering in the area.  

“I'm here, and stuck for the time being,” John sighed making his way to the control room, “The elevator isn't responding. It won't even let me in. And to top it off, EOS thinks these mishaps aren't accidental.” 

“Not accidental, then what?” Scott's hologram asked.

“She hasn't found proof, but she thinks someone might actually be hacking into Thunderbird 5.”

“Hacking into Thunderbird 5,” The room below shouted in surprise.

“I...I have b..been thinking along the s...same lines,” Brains announced appearing on the hologram, “I have safeguards in place, to keep things like t..these from h..happening. It l...looks like my safety's have been b..bypassed.” 

“Alright, Alan, chug some coffee. You're going up to get your brother.” 

“F.A.B.,” Alan popped up like a whack-a-mole and jumped into his seat, awaiting his departure. 

“And, actually, I think I'll go with you. I just have a bad feeling about this,” Scott added turning to join Alan. 

“I'll be waiting,” John closed the communication and set down his books, “EOS, let's see if we can't lay some traps for this hacker.” 

“I would be pleased to do that,” EOS exclaimed cheerfully. They both got to work, John having brought up several of the stations programs that had not been compromised and preceded to rework some of the programming. It would take Alan and Scott up to forty minutes to reach his position which was plenty of time to cause some havoc and to possibly get some proof as to who was doing it. 

John had barely gotten started on one particular hack that would cause anyone trying to hack into the program to be sent to a random internet page about kittens, when the gravity wheel suddenly decided to stop again. The sudden lack of gravity really didn't bother John. He just stayed where he was and continued with his work. However, a moment later the wheel jerked to life faster than normal forcing him to his knees and causing his head to hit a nearby console. He sat there for a moment on his knees holding one hand to his head. Dark patches were appearing in his field of vision and he blinked ferociously trying to force them away. Before he could even compose himself the wheel had stopped and he felt his weight disappear which, honestly, did not help the matter. 

“John, are you alright,” EOS asked zooming over to where the astronaut was floating. 

“I'll be fine,” John shook his head and blinked some more, the station slowly coming back into focus, “EOS, I think it would be best if you got yourself into the memory core.”

“But your brothers are not here yet,” EOS tried to argue, though she probably knew that John was right. If he was being forced to keep his feet under him, there was no way he would be able to help her if the hackers found her programing. 

“Please, EOS, I promise I will extract you as soon as we're safe,” John pleaded.

“Alright, John. I will see you soon.” John watched as the lights around EOS' camera changed into a rainbow of colors before fading to black. Satisfied, John twisted himself in mid air and reached for a handle so he could push himself to where the memory core was plugged in. It was a cylindrical unit, six inches long and six inches in diameter, where the most top secret of information about International Rescue and Thunderbird 5 were kept. Even if someone were able to hack into all off the systems of his bird, it would take them far longer to hack into the memory core. 

John quickly tapped his comm controls on his sash, “Scott,” John called out as the lounge once again appeared before him. “Please tell me Thunderbird 3 is launching, things are starting to escalate rather quickly.”

“They're on their way,” Scott confirmed looking up at him and then turned toward Virgil, “I'm sorry Virgil...” John didn't wait to hear what one older brother was saying to the other, but used one of the bars on the wall to maneuver himself down the corridor that would take him to the room where the memory core was housed. He had barely started down the hall when the gravity ring decided once again to speed into operation. He had some warning this time, and reached down with his hands to help cushion his fall. He hit the floor harder than he expected, and thought he had heard a small crack in his right wrist, or maybe he had felt it, or both. Either way, a sharp pain had started to radiate from that point in his arm. He forced each finger on his hand to move, and they did though they were starting to feel stiff and swollen as he started to lose feeling in them. He tried to rotate his wrist, but that caused a hot white jab of pain to radiate up his arm. He used his good arm to push himself up onto his knees. The wheel was causing about two G's of gravity, heavy, but John could still walk in it. Looking around he found a handle on the wall next to him and used it to pull himself to his feet. Slowly one step at a time, he made his way down the hall. He was about half way down, when the wheel stopped, launching into the air. He curled himself up, protecting his wrist, as his back thumped the ceiling, pushing the air out of him.

“Whoever is doing this,” He mused as he floated for a moment to catch his breath, “has a very wicked sense of humor.” Once he was breathing normally again, he grabbed for the closest hand hold and tried to pull himself closer to the floor, but he didn't have the chance. The gravity wheel sped back into action. John twisted himself so that he wouldn't land on his wrist again, but instead landed on his shoulder with yet another crack reverberating in his head. More than likely he had broken his collar bone. He rolled over on his back and tried to raise his arm above him. It hurt like hell, but he could move it, though he knew he shouldn't. However, he didn't have much choice. He couldn't feel any of his fingers in his left hand anymore, which could mean nerve damage when his wrist broke. He could still feel his fingers and move them on his right, he just couldn't lift his whole arm. Grunting with effort, he tucked his left arm to his side, his hand laying on his stomach and rolled over. Another shot of pain from his wrist as he rolled on top of it, but he breathed through his teeth and tried to ignore it. The wheel was spinning at close to three Gs, and without the aid of his arms, John was not going to be getting to his feet easily. So, instead, he started to crawl down the hall like an inchworm; walk his knees up till his butt was in the air and then slide his shoulders down the hall. As an afterthought, he figured it would have hurt less if he had remained on his back. As it was, each time he pushed himself forwards his shoulder would grind, and then as he laid flat his wrist would shoot an electric shock of pain up his arm. He didn't have much father to go, he could see the control pad for the memory core just ahead of him. 

John had pulled his knees up, and was just about to push himself forward once more when the gravity wheel screeched once again to a halt. John shot forward and hit the console straight on with his head. He floated unmoving for several moments, then slowly he started to blink. His vision was filled with black, that slowly faded to gray, and then white. He knew he didn't have much time, and even though his vision was still blurry he reached forward and felt for the door to the access panel. His shoulder ground next to his ear but he had to get the memory core out of Thunderbird 5. Color started to seep into is sight and he reached for the red blob in front of him. The keypad. He had made sure when they constructed the station that all keypads, whether in conjunction with a keyboard or other panel would all be numbed the same way. So when he reached out to the blurry red square he was sure he was hitting the right numbers. The memory core and the systems surrounding it worked off of their own power, and their own systems, so that even if the rest of the station was dead, the memory core could still be retrieved safely. He could hear a muffled hiss as a big round button appeared before him. He was slowly starting to see detail, and could read the words 'shut down' on it as long as he squinted a bit, though squinting made his head pound even more than it already was. He reached out and pushed the button firmly. An alarm started to sound throughout the station as lights and other non-essential systems started to shut down. The button retracted and moved aside to reveal the black cylinder. John reached in and pulled on the handle, grinding his teeth in pain as his shoulder continued to grind in his ear. Finally with a click, the cylinder slid out of its home and into John's arms. 

John blinked again, his vision becoming clearing but still with a hint of extra light around things. He looked around for the emergency cabinet. There was one in every main room that contained an extra helmet, suit, med kit, and oxygen. If the station suddenly vented his atmosphere he didn't want to have to go far in the two or so minutes he'd have before death. He pulled himself over to the cabinet,  opened it,  pulled out the helmet, and  painfully reached up to shove it on his head. He then floated aimlessly with the memory core in his arms, waiting for his brothers to arrive. He took a deep breath and twisted his body in the air so he was face down, and tried to maneuver himself so that his legs were closest to the floor when the unthinkable happened, the station moved. They had accessed the thrusters. John tucked the core in the crook of his left elbow and then turned toward a command display to see if he could out wit the hacker, but the hacker was still a step ahead of him. Just as John reached out his right arm, pain be damned, the gravity wheel spun into action dropping John like a rock. His head hit the edge of the console, cracking the face of his helmet and knocking him unconscious. 

 

“How ya doing over there, Verg?” Alan asked glancing over at his off colored brother. 

“Can't talk,” Vergil hissed though clamped teeth. 

“But we're not even in space yet, technically,” Alan argued as he adjusted some of the controls before him, “Oh wait, yeah, now we are.” It was as if gravity had been waiting for Alan's cue. The force the rocket had taken to break through the atmosphere faded away as the weight of their bodies lessened and Vergil's stomach promptly moved into his throat. Without a word to his brother he lifted the restrains on his shoulders and floated toward the back of the cabin where Alan could still distinctly hear him re-taste his early breakfast. “Guess who's cleaning their bird once we're back,” Alan sighed as he reached forward and instigated his Comm, “Thunderbird 3 calling Thunderbird 5, are you still there John?” Alan frowned at the silence that greeted him, “Thunderbird 3 calling Thunderbird 5!” 

“His communications must be down,” Virgil commented as he sat back down in his seat. 

“You okay?” 

“For now, luckily I only had one bagel and a cup of coffee.” 

“I didn't want to know that...,” Alan cringed being a bit on the squeamish side when it came to bodily fluids, “Thunderbird 3 calling Tracy Island, Brains you there?” 

“T...Tracy Island here.” 

“Hey, have you heard from John?” 

“I h...haven't. I've b...been trying to contact him s...since your departure to no a...avail,” Brains explained, “I s...suspect his communications have been compromised.” 

“Told you,” Virgil sniped at Alan, “So how do we hook up if he doesn't know when we're arriving?” 

“Then we knock on the doooooorrrr,” Alan slurred the last word his mouth hanging open, “Virgil, look.” Virgil followed Alan's gaze out of the front windows of Thunderbird 3 and to the distant figure of Thunderbird 5. 

“Is it supposed to be doing that,” Virgil asked before he had to turn away from the scene, “God, that is making the dizziness worse.” 

“Alan, Virgil, what is wrong? Have you made visual contact with T... Thunderbird 5?” 

“Yeah, and its gravity ring is going crazy. It's spinning one way, stopping and then going in the other direction, and fast,” Alan explained, “Not to mention it's thrusters are jolting it every which way. I'm not going to be able to dock like normal with it like that.” 

“I sure hope J...John is okay,” Brains commented. 

“Is there any way of stopping it, Brains,” Virgil asked, “If John is in it, there's no way we're going to be able to go in and save him without needing to be saved ourselves.” 

“Yes. I b...believe there is. If you disconnect the p...power supply to the ring, it s...should stop.” 

“Won't that cut out life support as well?” Virgil asked worriedly. 

“No, Life support is run on its own power,” Brains explained. 

“No Problem,” Alan proclaimed looking at the schematics Brains sent them, “We can hit that on our way to the door.” 

“I thought you said you couldn't dock.” 

“I can't, so we'll have to park alongside and walk over,” Alan smiled, “You did bring your helmet right?” 

 

Alan maneuvered Thunderbird 3 along side of Thunderbird 5 just as he said programing the auto pilot to stay within range of the station. He then pulled his board off the wall and threw it on the floor. 

“You riding with me,” Alan asked grinning at Virgil. 

“I don't have much of a choice if you want me with you,” Virgil frowned at the small board before him. Alan hopped on and Virgil hesitantly followed. 

“Better hang on if you don't want to be left behind,” Alan called as the doors opened above them, and Alan took off. Virgil grabbed his younger brother around the waist and hung on for dear life. They zoomed from Thunderbird 3 over to the access panel Brains had showed them. Virgil grabbed for the support handle next to the door and practically tore the panel off its hinges. “Careful, don't want to injure her too much.” 

“I just want to get back to solid ground as fast as I can,” Virgil replied trying to keep his eyes on the surface of the bulk head before him, “Is this the wire?” 

“Yep, number 32 coming from output C,” Alan replied looking at the schematics on his wrist computer. Virgil pulled out his wire cutters and snipped the wire like it was nothing. 

“Did it stop,” Virgil asked, not daring to look at it.

“Umm.... yeah, I think so. At least it's stopped for the moment. Even the station's stopped bopping around,” Alan replied grabbing his brother's hand and putting it back on his waist, “Now for the knocking.” They sped along the hull, Virgil keeping his eyes tightly shut, to the airlock nearest to them. Alan punched in the emergency protocol code into the keypad but nothing happened, “Brains, more bad news. We're locked out.” 

“You'll have to override the keypad,” Brains explained. 

“I've got this,” Virgil announced pulling out another of his tools. 

“You sure, you're still looking a bit green.” 

“I need to or else,” Virgil replied looking like he was ready to throw up again. Virgil popped open the keypad and pulled it out, exposing all the thickly insulated wires inside. He clipped a few, patched together others, and after a couple of minutes pushed the keypad back in its position. He pressed one button and the doors slid smoothly open. Once inside the airlock Alan entered his code on the second panel, and this time the doors worked like they were supposed to. The outside ones closed, the airlock pressurized, and the inner ones slid open. 

“Well, it looks like the air is still breathable,” Alan commented as he started to take off his helmet.

“You leave that on, we're not staying long enough to chat,” Virgil commanded of his brother as he reached up to his sash and hit the logo there, “Our short range comms should work, John can you hear us?” They both waited, but only silence answered them. 

“How about we split up?” Alan suggested.

“No, we stay together. Anyways, we do have trackers embedded in our communicators,” Virgil smirked at Alan as he punched a few commands into his wrist controller and brought the tracker to life sending out a signal he hoped would lead them to their brother. They floated there watching Virgil's monitor their breath held until a red dot appeared. 

“There, just ahead. Probably in the command room,” Alan cheered.

“No, this is where the memory core is, but why would he be there?” Virgil mused as they pushed them selves down the hall to the gravity ring which now sat silently. They made their way around the ring, silence echoed around them, not even the normal sounds of the station filled the void.

“Thunderbird 5 has had a bit of a beating hasn't she,” Alan commented more to end the silence than to start up a conversation with his brother, “Half the lights are out, the other half seem to be barely working. I hope we find whoever did this.” 

“Our first priority is to get John out, before I'm no longer able to function,” Virgil frowned as he looked into some of the rooms they passed. Alan was right, he could see small burn marks where independent systems had been fried, and the toaster was still emitting a cloud of black smoke. Luckily who ever was hacking into her systems hadn't messed with life support or the emergency systems. They were safe for now. 

“I'm gonna go to the command room,” Alan suddenly announced, “I want to see something.” 

“I thought I said not to split up.” 

“Come on, Virg. Grab John and meet me there.” 

“And what if I pass out?” Virgil asked, “My hands are already starting to shake.” 

“You're doing fine. This is the longest you've ever lasted,” Alan proclaimed thinking it would cheer him up. 

“You're not helping,” Virgil grumbled, “Fine, but if we aren't there in five, come find us.” 

“F.A.B.” Alan turned around and headed for the control room, as Virgil continued down the ring. He pushed himself through the doorway of the memory room and froze. There were bits of debris floating everywhere. Nothing big, just bits and pieces of smaller items, things that had been broken off as something large had been thrown around while the gravity ring had been out of control. That something large, had been John. 

Virgil pulled his way over to his brother who was floating limply near the windows. 

“John,” Virgil called as he reached for his brother's arm. John's face was pointed toward the windows, but there was a glare that stopped Virgil from seeing his reflection. He grabbed his brother's arm expecting to feel the muscles tighten under his spacesuit in reflex, but his arm stayed limp and his body did not move. A surge of adrenaline had started to pump through Virgil's veins, his dizziness only slightly pushed away. He pulled John toward him, turning his body to face him. His helmet had a dozen fissures and cracks webbed along its surface, and splatters of blood dotted the inside. He could see John's eyes, they were closed, but his face was a mess of blood. 

Virgil tapped the controls on John's sash, brining up his physical stats that were constantly being updated by his top of the line suit. It took a moment for the information to display, the control ring had a crack in it as well, but soon John's heart beat jumped into view. It was steady, but weaker than it should have been. He also wasn't getting the O2 he needed either. Virgil grabbed John's arm and brought up his oxygen stats, the reserves on his suit were empty, he was only breathing what air got to him from the cracks in his helmet. Quickly Virgil pulled John's helmet off. John's face was a mess, that was Virgil's first thought. Blood was still oozing from a gash on his forehead that seemed to mark one of the blood spatters on the helmet. There was also blood around his nostrils, Virgil gently felt the bridge of his nose, it was broken. John's lips were dry, and slightly apart, Virgil leaned down and could hear the slow weak breaths that went in and out of them. 

Pushing himself away, Virgil went over to the emergency cabinet which was still hanging open. He pulled the med kit out and pushed himself back to where John floated. First thing, John needed O2. Virgil placed the mask gently over his nose and mouth slipping the elastic band around his head, and then activated the small device, hooking it onto John's suit. The device beeped into existence, it had been made to interact with John's suit and started to communicate with it adjusting the O2 to suit the injured man. Virgil turned his attention back to John's stats. According to the readouts there was damage to John's left hand, and right shoulder, as well as injured ribs. There wasn't much else he could do for John until they could get him strapped into the stretcher on Thunderbird 3. 

Virgil was about to grab John and leave, when he noticed something in John's injured left hand. He reached over and grabbed the black cylinder giving it a curious stare. He knew what it was, but didn't understand why John had risked his life to retrieve it. The memory core of Thunderbird 5 was what they used to call the black box. Even if the space station were to lose it's orbit and crash back onto Earth, the memory core would have still been intact. It wasn't even part of their emergency protocol to retrieve the thing until the situation at hand and all danger had been neutralized. Virgil knew, however, that John must have had a reason, so he latched the core to his belt and then pulled John to him, grabbing him under the armpits and around the chest with one arm like a big rag doll. 

 


	3. Just When You Though Things Couldn't Get Worse

Alan knew just as much about Thunderbird 5 as he did about his own bird, and the idea that someone was able to hack her was just insane. Even still, there were protocols in place just in case something like this happened. Alan pulled himself up to the control panel in the main room and punched a few buttons. When they failed to react he kicked the unit with his foot and then pounded it with his hand. 

“Hm, power must be out,” Alan mused as he pulled himself down to floor level and right in front of an access panel. Pulling the panel from the unit unveiled an organized mess of wires. Each wire was bunched together with others of its kind until it splayed out and into its connector. Alan reached in and felt around for a moment before deciding that he was not in the right spot. He pulled himself around the corner of the unit and pulled off another access panel. The same sight met him, but one exception. The bundles of wires were all bundled into a thicker rope and emerged from a single access point in the inner hull. Alan then preceded to pull off wall tiles, following the thick rope of wires. Slowly other small ropes came to run along side the first, but Alan continued to follow them until a final thick wire appeared next to the ones from the console. Pumping his fist, Alan pulled out a knife from his belt and cut the banding that held the rope of wires together. Like a flower seeking out the sun the wires spread out and laid themselves open for Alan's inspection. Alan fished around the field of wires for the one that matched colors with the thick one. Carefully, Alan cut the black wire he had fished out of the rope and pulled it up for him to work with. With his knife he cut a fine line around the insulation around the wire and pulled an inch of it away exposing the bare wire. He then cut the tethering around the larger wire and pulled it closer to the smaller one he had just cut. Using his knife again he cut a slit a good several inches long down the thick wire exposing a bundle of smaller wire inside. Freeing one of the smaller wires from the bundle he cut it in half with a small snap of electricity and prepped it in the same way as the first wire.

“Alright, Alan,” He announced pulling the two wires to touching distance. One wire was dead, he knew and the other was crackling with power. His gloves should protect him from most of the electric shock he was about to feel, but he wasn't quite sure just how much they would protect him. However, if he wanted to get the computer up and running, he needed to get some power to it, and there just wasn't time to go and find the shut off and repair the unit properly. He looked around quickly to make sure he wasn't touching anything conductive and closed his eyes touching the two bare ends of wire together. There was a crackle and then the hum as the computer came back to life. “Alright, now we know it works,” Alan took in a deep breath, “Now to make the connection a bit more permanent.” He reached out with his fingers and as quickly as he could bent the two wires together. For a moment he thought he was safe, but then he felt a sharp pain run up his arm and the next thing he knew he was floating on the other side of the room, his muscles slowly relaxing. “Crap, that was way worse than I thought it would be.” Alan was breathing hard,  there were still white spots in his vision and at least two fingers on his right hand were numb. He pushed himself off the wall and towards the display that was now showing him the last thing John had been working on. 

John was the programer of the family. He could create new programs by the time the others had written out the first line of code. Alan was closely gaining on John in this area, but what he saw laid out before him was something even he had never seen. 

“What in the world were you up to?” Alan asked himself as he scanned the lines of code, stopping and looking very confusedly at the word 'kittens'. It was a minor program that managed the interior doors of the station, and Alan wasn't sure why John would have pulled that particular piece of programing up. What was he trying to accomplish? Alan started typing, looking deeper into the files available to him. He was able to trace the path of issues that had plagued Thunderbird 5 during the past week. They were random, not one issue was connected with the previous or the next. Alan could see now why they all thought it could be a hacker. He pulled up the diagnostic on one of the milder problems, the toaster in the kitchen. Even on this small unimportant machine, Brains had set up limiters  to keep it from getting too hot. Those limiters had been disabled, and not from Thunderbird 5. Alan brought up the hacking protocol to try and continue securing the systems on Thunderbird 5, but found that the protocol hadn't even been started. Frowning he initiated the protocol, attempting to shut down systems before the hacker could access them even more. Something happened then, that Alan did not foresee. The console he was working on died, as well as the remaining lights in the room. He realized a moment too late, that in patching the wiring into the the electricity for the lights, he had compromised the system. He pushed himself over to his patch job and jerked the wires apart in a splash of sparks. 

There was now nothing else for him to do, with a hand on a bar just inside the door, Alan looked back into the dark control room and cursed his own stupidity, and whoever it was doing this to them. He would never understand why there were people that hated them so, when all they wanted to do was save those who needed saved. He pushed himself back out into the hall and reached out for a handle on something to push him forward to where his brothers were, when suddenly he was being pulled backwards. He reached out for anything to grab, but the moment he reached for it, it was out of his reach. He scrambled to grasp anything he could as the only reasoning raced through his head, they had opened the airlocks. The pressure inside the station was racing out and taking anything it could with it, including Alan. 

Alan twisted so he could see where he was going and spotted a sturdy pipe along the wall. He reached out for it, grabbing it with his right hand and then slipping his left hand behind it as his body was flung around the corner. His right hand slipped from the bar, but his left was stuck, causing his arm to bend around the tight corner, breaking the bones within. White hot pain reverberated though Alan's arm, as his cry of anguish got caught in his throat and black and white dots appeared in his vision. He blinked, he was not going to pass out. He needed to get to his brothers. His brothers. He reached up with his good hand and hit the insignia on his sash. 

“Virgil, John, are you there?” Alan shook his head demanding his body to deal with the pain. 

 

Virgil had pulled his brother's body down the hall and into the next main compartment, his bedroom. He glanced over at the glass door and the multiple bubbles of water floating on the other side. Virgil couldn't help but laugh at the annoyance on his brother's face when he couldn't fix a simple water leak. Though it hadn't been a simple water leak, and this was turning out not to be a simple ride home. Virgil positioned his brother's body so it was floating over his bed, it was silly, but seemed proper some how. He then reached over to the small dresser and pulled out the bottom drawer. Inside was his spare helmet and emergency suit, as well as another med kit. It had been their father's idea, to disguise the cabinet in the dresser, so that the room looked a bit more like home and not the space station it was. Anyways, when you wore spacesuits everyday, why would you need a dresser. Out of curiosity, Virgil opened the top of the two drawers and looked to see what John kept in it. A little bit of everything he found. There were pictures, letters, books, and the few extra suits he would rotate through in a week. Scolding himself for being a little snoop Virgil closed the drawer and pulled out the extra helmet. He had to take the oxygen mask off of John to put his helmet on, but the helmet with the suit should act in the same manner. With John's helmet securely on, Virgil looked at the time on his wrist computer. It had been way longer than five minutes, where was Alan? He stuck his head out into the hall and looked both ways. For Alan to get from the command center to the memory room, this hall was the fastest path, but he was no where to be seen. Virgil knew the proper thing to do would be to get John back onto Thunderbird 3 and then to come back and hunt down Alan. The problem being he wasn't sure he could get John to Thunderbird 3, let alone making his way back across that void to find Alan. Even now his vision nor his hands were at his steadiest, and his stomach was making some very interesting noises.

“Alright, John, looks like you're going to have to stay here for the moment,” Virgil announced as he patted his little brother on the shoulder, “I promise I'll be back, with Alan. Whether he likes it or not.” Using the sheets from the bed, Virgil tied John down and made sure to close the door behind him. Virgil then made his way to the command center. 

He was half way there, when all hell broke loose. He had just grabbed a hand hold when he shot forward. His hand jammed into the handle and Virgil felt a crunch and it was jerked just as hard out of it. He pulled his hand to him, and attempted to move his fingers without much luck. Broken more than likely. It wasn't the first time he had broken his hand and was able to deal with the pain fairly easily. His stomach on the other hand was causing him bigger pains. Plus there were more pressing matters. He looked toward his feet and the approaching turn, it was as if he were falling, and he knew that he was falling into a bottomless pit. The airlocks had been opened, and he hoped upon hope that John's door had stayed closed and the improvised restraints held. Everything that wasn't bolted down was racing past him, trying to be the first out the door. Eyeing the sides of the walls, he knew it would be near impossible to grab onto anything without causing more damage to himself. Luckily he still had his repelling cable with him. He didn't keep as many as Scott did, but he always tried to have one or two cartridges on him just in case. Loading one up as best he could one handed he aimed for an upcoming pipe and fired. The cable caught and jerked his shoulder as he came to an abrupt stop, but otherwise no harm was done. He had just attached it to his hip when his insignia lit up and Alan's voice shakily called his name. 

“Virgil, John, are you there?” 

“Alan, where are you,” Virgil yelled worry seeping farther into his bones at the sound of his brother's voice. 

“About five hundred feet from the airlock,” Alan replied, his voice softer than usual and very shaky. 

“Alan, what is wrong,” Virgil asked, “Are you hurt?” 

“My hand is caught, arm broken,” Came his broken reply with a soft laugh, “Plus electric shock.” 

“Electric shock, how the hell,” Virgil shook his head, “Never mind. Can you get your arm free? And can you get back to Thunderbird 3 on your own?” 

“I...I can't see Virgil. It hurts, it's still pulling on it, may arm. It hurts, Virgil.” Virgil ground his teeth and took a deep breath forcing himself not to get all emotional, now was not the time, “Hang in their squirt, I'm on my way.” There was no way to avoid it, he'd have to make two trips. John was still safe and secure in his room, he could wait. Alan, on the other hand, could be shot out of the airlock at any moment. Virgil knew he couldn't just jump, he would have to do a controlled fall. But hey, this was something he was good at. He reeled himself up to the pipe and unhooked his cable. He looked down below him, and spotted another pipe. Jumping out into the middle he aimed for the next pipe and fired. Again his aim was good and his shoulder Jerked under his weight. The suction shouldn't last much longer, but he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. He jumped again, and again, slowly making his way to the airlock each time ordering his brother to talk to him. He was only a couple of hundred feet from the corner and could see Alan's blue hand stuck limply in a pipe when he heard a thump from behind. Twisting around he pulled himself to the wall just as two large bent pieces of metal came flying down the hall and around the corner, followed by a yell from Alan. 

“Alan!” Virgil swore loudly and flung himself around the corner. The vacuum was waining finally, but it turned out that was a bad thing. Alan was pale, very pale. His hand was still caught in the piping, his arm bent forcefully around the corner, bone was poking out of the skin, but had not torn through his spacesuit. However the front of his space suit was sliced open, air and blood was leaking out fast. The sheets of metal that had flown past him had come inches from slicing his brother in half. Now that the pressure was equalizing, space would finish what they did not. Virgil grabbed Alan's helmet with his good hand and looked him in the eyes, “Remember your training.” Alan nodded and Virgil could see the mist as he released his breath. Satisfied, Virgil turned to his utility belt, honestly he felt like batman sometimes with the amount of stuff he carried with him, and pulled out a small roll of tape, duct tape. Out of all the inventions and improvements through the years, this tape withstood the test of time. He picked at the edge with his gloved finger wishing he could just pull it off and use his nail, but he finally got the edge up and pulled it. He haphazardly slapped it on the tear in Alan's suit and started warping it tightly around him, hoping it would provide enough pressure to help staunch the wound underneath. He was having difficulties tearing the roll off when the whole space station shuttered and jerked around them. He didn't even have a moment to ask what that was, when he noticed it outside of the air lock. Thunderbird 3 had crashed into Thunderbird 5, or rather vice versa. Pulling the roll of tape off his arm and letting it dangle next to Alan's ribs, Virgil pulled Alan back to the corner so he could free his hand. Once at the right angle, his hand slid out from under the pipe easily enough, but left his arm at a very unnatural angle. 

“Alan, don't go to sleep on me. You know the rules,” Virgil glared at the pale face and scared blue eyes. 

“Where's John,” Alan asked taking slow even breaths. 

“In his room currently. Believe it or not, he's worse off than you,” Virgil growled. 

“Will he be okay?” 

“Don't worry. This Earth man will save you two Space heads.” Alan grinned a little at that before he flinched as Virgil tried to move his arm. 

“I've got to secure it, just bare with me,” Virgil apologized as he pulled Alan's arm around his chest and secured it using the rest of the tape. 

“Verg...” Alan croaked. Virgil looked up to complain about the nickname, but instead saw Alan gasping for air. He checked Alan's supply and found that it was completely empty. The rupture in his space suit had leaked what little air he had had. Virgil grabbed him and pulled him over to the air lock that still stood gaping open. He stopped on the edge. Thunderbird 3 was only about a thousand feet away by now, but the stars started to spin in his vision. He had to do it, he couldn't let the limitations of his body stop him from saving his brothers. Taking a deep breath he set his eyes on the spinning hull of Thunderbird 3, the impact must have caused it to start spinning like that. There was the door, it was spinning away from the station, he had to jump now. 

The door opened for them, recognizing the signal from their suits and closed behind them once they were in. As soon as Virgil was sure the room had pressurized he pulled Alan's helmet off. The boy was as pale as he had seen him yet, and he wasn't breathing. Floating in zero G there was no way that Virgil could perform CPR, at least not all of it. He grabbed Alan's head and made sure his airway was clear, then pinching his nose he blew into his mouth. Releasing the kiss, he listened as the air exited and then blew again. He repeated this, over and over. 

“Come on, Alan,” He growled once again, why wasn't it working. He's young, his heart should be okay, he wasn't without air... then it hit him. Electric Shock. Alan had said he had had an electric shock. Virgil opened the hatch that led to Thunderbird 3's cargo bay and most of it's supplies. The pod sat suspended in the middle of the bay, and off to the side were a few extra chairs. Most importantly was TB3's version of a med bay. A few stretchers strapped to the side of the hull. He strapped Alan down, and reached for the AED that hung near by. There was no way he was going to be able to get Alan's suit off in time, so he pulled his knife out and started cutting. The suits were tough, especially Alan and John's, but Virgil was able to at least make a big enough hole that he could squeeze the pads into and nearer to bare skin. One pad near the shoulder, the other on the opposite side. He turned on the machine and it checked the status of the patient. 

'No heartbeat' It called out in its mechanical voice, 'charging....... clear' Virgil could hear the small kthunk as the electrodes tried to jump Alan's heart back into action, 'continue CPR' Virgil once again started blowing breaths into his brother's limp body. Stopping only when the machine told him to. 

 

Two minutes. 

 

Virgil continued to push breaths into Alan's lungs. 

 

Four minutes. 

 

The machine shocked him again. 

 

Six minutes. 

 

God he hoped John was still doing okay. 

 

Eight minutes. 

 

'Natural rhythm achieved,' 

 

Virgil had breathed in another lung full of air to give to his brother, but let it out in a sigh of relief. He reached for the oxygen mask and carefully placed it over his brother's head before checking to make sure everything was secure. 

 

Alan was safe, now Virgil had to go find his other brother. Hopefully he was right where he had left him. He grabbed his helmet and stuck it on again, opening the hatch from Thunderbird 3. He had steadied the ship, so it was no longer rolling, but the auto pilot had been knocked out, along with her comms. Virgil looked down at the void around him and his stomach lurched. 

“Idiot, don't look down,” Virgil yelled at himself as he mashed his eyes shut. He waited for a moment, swallowing, hoping it would help settle his stomach. Once he was sure he was not going to vomit, he cracked his eyes open and stared straight at the airlock. He would not look anywhere else, but there. Tucking his injured hand in, he jumped, holding his good hand out to catch himself on his landing. His aim was good, and he flew right through the door and into the space station. He paused just inside the door, his eyes were spinning, and he was dry heaving. He clung tightly to a bar and tried to breath. It took him several minutes, but he was finally able to regain control. Opening his eyes, Virgil pushed himself back toward his brother's room. He could feel his heart thumping in his chest as he saw the door to the room open. Slowly he peeked around and saw his brother, still unconscious, but the light mist on his visor was proof that he was still alive. The make-shift restraints had mostly held, though his legs were floating aimlessly about, he was still in the cabin. Virgil floated forward and cut the remaining restraints, pulling his brother to his chest once again like a rag doll. 

Virgil encountered no problems as he pulled his brother's body back to the air lock. He stood on the threshold looking out at Thunderbird 3. The two spaceships had floated even farther apart and more of the black void filled the land lover's field of vision. His confidence was shot. Everything was spinning, there was no way he would be able to jump back to TB3 safely, especially with John. He stepped back a few steps and turned away from the view. He was going to need some help. His grappling hook wasn't long enough, and he wasn't sure if it would work properly in zero G anyways. Glancing around the airlock, he ran across an extra propulsion pack still strapped to the wall. It would have to work. Letting John float on his own, he went over and attached the pack to his back. It normally required two working hands, but with one hand broke, and the other holding John, well Virgil could only hope he could control the thing. As a measure of safety, he also attached his grappling hook to the outside of the airlock. He didn't want to step out there without some way of coming back should the pack send him off in some crazy direction. 

With his eyes closed, his good hand firmly around John, he took the step into nothing. Slowly he opened his eyes and locked them onto Thunderbird 3. Using the wrist of his bad hand he activated the propulsion pack. Slow at first, steady as he could. Then suddenly he did a barrel roll and his stomach heaved. He was able to stop the pack, but now he was floating in space, trying his best to keep a hold of his brother, and dry heaving into his helmet. 

Strings of spittle and stomach bile floated in his helmet as Virgil tried to calm his breathing down. He had thought he was out of breath because of the dry heaving, but quickly realized that he too was running out of air. This made him panic and started hyperventilating. He could feel the tug of the cable that tethered him to the space station and considered reeling them both in, for if he was running out of air, John wasn't far behind. However, he doubted he would be able to get himself to step back out of Thunderbird 5 again. So, in a moment of panic he detached the cable from his waist and slammed his wrist on the controls to the pack. The propulsion pack shot the two brothers forward. Luck was with them, as they flew right into the cabin of Thunderbird 3. Virgil pulled John around to his front  as they passed though the doors putting himself between his brother and the bulkhead they slammed into. 

Stars danced in front of his eyes as the doors closed and he struggled to remove his helmet. The air had been knocked out of him and his stomach was started to protest again at being weightless. He gulped in the recycled air of the cabin and then fumbled with John's helmet, tapping on his spacesuit to bring up his stats and make sure he was still okay. He wasn't worse, his suit showed him, but he hadn't gotten much better. Trying to force himself to breath through his nose, Virgil pulled John back into the cargo bay to join Alan. Virgil strapped him in next to his brother, and connected him to another AED and oxygen, just in case. Once he was sure his brother's were secure he made his way back to the cabin. 

Thunderbird 3 had emergency protocols installed that would allow the ship to be either controlled from the ground, or automatically land should the pilot be unable to do so. Unfortunately, both of those protocols required a working communications system, and Thunderbird 3's was non existent. Virgil had seen it after the two space ships had collided. The panel where Thunderbird 3's communications section was located, was smashed in. His attempts to call down to the island were proof of what he had seen. Alan or John would have been able to go out and attempt to fix the issue, but Virgil was at his limit. His hand ached, he had a headache pounding in his head, his stomach was still lurching, and even his good hand was shaking worse than a leaf in the wind. He knew he was not going to be able to land Thunderbird 3. But he also knew they could not stay there. John and Alan both needed medical attention, not to mention himself. So he started up the engines and maneuvered the ship one handed toward Earth.  

Even though Virgil had not been expected to ever fly Thunderbird 3, Scott had made sure he had had plenty of time in the simulator just in case. Slowly he pointed the nose of TB3 down toward Earth calculating in his mind the trajectory he would need to take. He wanted to get the ship as close to the island as he could, and he wanted to try and keep himself awake long enough to engage the retros. If he went in too hard, there was no way he would be able to stay alert, let alone keep control of the ship. But if he went in too shallow, he would bounce off the atmosphere and end up back in orbit at best. Deciding on his path, Virgil engaged the thrusters. The blackness of space was taken over by the blues, whites, and greens below him, as the ship started to shake and shutter. Virgil started to wonder if he had gone in too steep, his hand was having a hard time keep the ship steady and his vision was starting to blur. 

Virgil watched the instruments closely, blinking and squinting to keep them in focus as flames licked the outside of the hull. With, what felt like a pop, the ship burst through the atmosphere. Virgil was getting weaker, his eyes blurry and sending sharp pains into his head. He reached up and killed the engine, firing the retros, but the dark abyss of space finally consumed him.

 


	4. A Brother's Job

Thunderbird 2 had launched quickly with module 4, Thunderbird 4 stashed onboard. The two remaining Tracy brothers had remained quiet as they sped away from their home and the argument in the lounge. 

“Scott,” Gordon had been taking quick glances at his older brother, trying to gauge if it was safe to speak to him yet or not, but his curiosity was getting the best of him, “Why did you send Virgil to space? Knowing how bad he is at it. I mean, you or him are capable of piloting my bird. I would't have minded going with Alan.”

“I know,” Scott sighed, “I admit, I feel a bit guilty sending him up there, but I had my reasons.” 

“Which were,” Gordon prompted twisting in his chair to look at his brother. 

“Do we have to talk about this right now?”

“Yes.” 

“Do me a favor and get on the scanner, start looking for Thunderbird S,” Scott commanded thumbing to the seat behind him.

“F.A... wait, you're not trying to sidetrack me are you?” 

“Just get back there,” Scott waved his hand at Gordon to try and get him to move a little faster, “As for my reasons, well we were going to the Indian Ocean and if Kayo had crashed and already sunk into the water I wanted my best diver ready to go after her.” 

“Alright, I am that,” Gordon boasted as he hopped from the front co-pilot chair to the one behind Scott, “What's the other?” 

“Who said there was another?” 

“You said reasons,” Gordon replied with emphasis on the plural.  

“Alright, just keep your eye on that scanner,” Scott sighed knowing Gordon wouldn't let him off, “Virgil is kind of my lucky charm.” 

“Your brother is your lucky charm,” Gorgon laughed.

“Just hear me out,” Scott sighed again trying to find the right words to describe what he meant, “Virgil has always been there, right next to me. I mean, I can’t remember him ever not being there. Growing up, he followed me around everywhere. In school he was always right there behind me, supporting me and even beating up a bully here and there. And even now, Thunderbird 2 is always there when I need him. I just know that nothing will ever go wrong when he's there.” 

“Aww, that's so sweet,” Gordon cooed.

“Oh, shut-up.” 

“No really, it's nice,” Gordon smiled reaching forward to ruffle his big brother's hair. Scott pulled away from him and twisted to glare back at him. “So, if Virgil is your lucky brother, what am I?” 

“You, you're the fish.” 

“Right, because of my swimming, I know,” Gordon rolled his eyes. 

“No, because you smell like one,” Scott retorted. 

“What,” Gordon exclaimed sniffing his armpit, “I took a shower yesterday!”

“Try doing it everyday, little bro,” Scott laughed. 

 

They settled into a companionable silence as Scott maneuvered Thunderbird 2 into a search pattern, starting along the outer boundaries of the ocean working their way to the center in a spiral pattern. 

“Scott, can you move East a few miles, I think I saw something,” Gordon announced after about a half hour of searching. 

“F.A.B.,” Scott replied banking to his right a bit, “What do you see?” 

“I’m not sure,” Gordon replied adjusting the settings on the scanner to get a better image, “I'm getting a visual now.” 

“Man, this is what I miss about Thunderbird 1, all I would need to do is look down,” Scott sighed as he waited for Gordon's report. 

“Found it,” Gordon announced, “She's been crashed on a small island. Looks pretty beat up too,” Gordon announced as he threw the image over to the flight controls so Scott could see, “I'm scanning the topography now to see if there is a place for us to land.”

“What have you gotten yourself into this time, Kayo,” Scott mumbled to himself pinching the bridge of his nose hoping it would relieve the mild thumping in his head. Scott sighed and scrutinized the image of the remains of Thunderbird S, “Do a quick biometric scan, see if she's nearby. We may be able to just pick them both up and head home.” 

“F.A.B.” Gordon chirped as he pushed some more buttons, “Well, that's odd.” 

“What? Is she actually being good and sitting next to her plane waiting on us?” 

“No, there's no sign of any humans.” 

“Figures,” Scott sighed, “That girl needs to learn how to sit still.” 

“There's also no sign of any living creature bigger than an ant down there.” 

“Are you sure about that?” 

“Positive,” Gordon replied, “Also the topography is back and there is really nowhere to land.”

“Alright, I'll get a bit closer and drop you and the module off,” Scott commanded as he brought TB2 up to come in at a different angle.

“F.A.AAAAAAH!” Gordon yelled as the plane suddenly dropped out from under him, “Scott!”

“I've lost all control, we're going down!” 

“My bird,” Gordon exclaimed as he pulled open a hatch and disappeared.

“Get your butt in a seat now!” Scott yelled at his little brother, but Gordon was gone. Cursing he pulled on the wheel, and at first the green behemoth was not responding to him, he pulled some more, tried to reboot the system, but no luck. He was just about to prepare for a nosedive into the water, when suddenly the plane leveled out. Scott wasn't sure what had changed, but he was grateful. Thunderbird 2 skipped across the surface of the water before hitting a small strip of sand and crashing into a rocky cliff face. 

 

There was an alarm beeping, and a light flashing. Scott moaned as a blurry red light blinked on and off in front of his face. He pushed himself up, holding his head, waiting for the dizziness to subside. He blinked a few times, his vision slowly coming into focus and looked straight ahead out of the windows of Thunderbird 2. 

“Virgil is going to kill me,” Scott mumbled looking at the nose cone that was crushed into a sheet of rock. He reached up, silenced the alarm, and checked the systems. Multiple damaged systems, including the comms. He touched his insignia looking for some help, “Thunderbird 2 to Thunderbird 5 are you still up there?” No response, the space station's communications had been compromised. He wasn't surprised by this. Scott hoped the silence was due to John shutting down the systems to keep the hacker out, and not because the hacker had gained control over them. There was no way to reach Tracy Island without the aid of either Thunderbird 2’s comm signal or Thunderbird 5’s comm array. Without access to either of his two engineers he probably wasn't going to get her flying any time soon. Scott reached up and tapped his insignia again calling his other brother, “Gordon, are you there? Gordon!” Silence. Scott pushed the seat back and stood up, wobbling a little on his legs and stumbled to the hatch Gordon had disappeared into. Scott slid down a ladder, falling flat on his bottom when his legs couldn’t support the landing, and followed the hall back to where the entrance door to the module was, only the module wasn't there. Blinking in the brightness of the sun, Scott looked around frantically for a moment. The back half of Thunderbird 2 had dug a trench in the sand, burying itself. He found Gordon laying on his back, his legs dangling dangerously off of the plane. Scott quickly made his way over to his brother, pulling him safely back before looking him over. He looked fine, except for a large cut on his head. “Gordon,” Scott yelled, shaking his shoulders a bit and lightly patting his face, “Gordon you better wake up or help me...” 

“Help you with what?” Gordon asked as he smirked. The light was bothering him, he was squinting up at Scott, or the blob above him he assumed was his brother. 

“Help me understand what you were doing?” Scott exclaimed as he reached out and inspected the cut on Gordon's head. 

“I dropped my bird,” Gordon explained, jerking away from Scott's probings, “That hurts.” 

“I imagine it does,” Scott smiled realizing that that was what had allowed him to level out, a drop in weight. 

“I knew that if we crashed with the module still intact, we wouldn't be able to get my bird out.” 

“That was quick thinking, if not dangerous,” Scott scolded. He had grabbed a nearby med kit, Virgil kept them almost everywhere, and was trying to clean up Gordon's wound. 

“Will you stop that, I'm okay,” Gordon fought back trying to back away from the antiseptic spray Scott was about to use. 

“It's got sand in it. Do you want it to get infected?” Scott asked cornering his brother and grabbing his face so he wouldn't turn it away. With no where to go, Gordon suffered in silence as his eldest brother cleaned up his wound and attached a waterproof bandage to his head. 

“Are we done now,” Gordon asked as Scott leaned back on his heels. 

“I'm sorry, your head is a lost cause,” Scott smirk as he ducked the fist Gordon swung at him, but Gordon’s eyes were still working on focusing and was nowhere close to his brother, “Stay here for a moment. I'm going to climb up and see the damage.” 

Gordon frowned as Scott mounted a ladder and climbed to the top of Thunderbird 2. He looked at the big green bird below him and felt a little better. She wasn't in that bad of shape, the worst seemed to be in the front and since the systems booted up okay, it may just take some TLC but he thought they would eventually be able to get her back to the island. Thunderbird S, on the other hand, was another matter. It had crashed on the same island as they did, a few hundred yards away. Even from where he stood he could see one wing was hanging off of her, and her tail was MIA. The cockpit was still in one piece so that was good. Scott walked around to the tail end of Thunderbird 2 and slid down the dune that had been created during their landing. Gordon, seeing him, was hot on his heels. 

“How is Thunderbird 2,” Gordon asked rubbing his eyes as he caught up to Scott.

“I told you to stay still.” 

“For a moment, the moment is over,” Gordon argued, “Anyways, 2 how is she?” 

“I think she'll be okay. Are you okay,” Scott asked watching Gordon blink and rub his eyes again. 

“Yeah, think I just got some sand in them,” Gordon replied, “I’ll take a quick dive and that should wash them out.” 

“Well, go ahead and prep your bird while you’re in there. I'm going to go see if I can tell which direction Kayo took.” 

“Oh, I already know that,” Gordon grinned at his older brother after having taken a few steps toward the water. 

“I thought you said there were no life signs on this island.” 

“There aren't,” Gordon just continued to grin.

“Then how?” 

“What do we leave that shadows don't,” Gordon asked his smirk breaking into a huge grin. 

“Gordon,” Scott groaned. At least he knew his brother was feeling okay. 

“Footprints,” Gordon explained pointing to the set leading to the ocean from Thunderbird S.

“Alright, let's go,” Scott sighed.

“Let's,” Gordon asked looking from Scott to the water, “go where?” 

“To Thunderbird 4. I'm coming down with you.” 

“Uh, Scott, you do remember that it is a one man sub right?” 

“Brat,” Scott rolled his eyes and then ruffled Gordon's hair careful to stay clear of his wound, “I'll ride in the cargo hatch.” 

“I wouldn’t recommend that.” 

“Well, I’m not going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs while you’re down there,” Scott frowned as he continued toward the lapping water. 

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Gordon called as he ran off into the waves, diving in as soon as he was waist deep in the water. Scott shook his head, Gordon was always good for a laugh and it definitely helped his stress levels when he was on the mission as well. Scott followed his brother into the cold water diving in and swimming to the green module floating out in the ocean. 

Gordon, of course, reached the module before Scott and had lowered the hatch giving him an easy way in. Scott climbed into the cargo hold of Thunderbird 4 and settled himself in the corner. 

“Remind me, when we get home, to mention to Brains about putting a seat back here,” Scott joked. 

“No, way,” Gordon argued, “I don't need any more weight on her. We've been trying to figure out how to lighten her as it is! I warned you riding back there may not be a good idea.”

“You bring people back here all the time during rescues,” Scott argued as he looked for something to hold onto. 

“And they usually end up on the fold out stretchers,” Gordon retorted, “That and they’re usually only back there for a few minutes. It just wasn’t meant for a long term passenger.” 

“Alright, alright. Just let me know when you're ready to lauuuuahh..ow!” 

“Umm... You okay?”

“Yeah, how about a compromise, can we at least get some straps,” Scott asked a chuckle on his lips. 

“I'll look into that for you,” Gorgon laughed, “I'm heading down.” 

“Let me know when you see anything,” Scott rubbed his head where he had knocked it on the side of the hull. 

“Well, that’s going to be a while.” 

“Why, is it too murky? I imagine Thunderbird 2 stirred up quite a bit on her landing.” 

“The water is crystal clear, but there's no fish, or sea life at all,” Gordon replied as he looked out all of the windows around him. 

“Any idea what could be causing it?” 

“None, unless... why would you say Thunderbird 2 lost power like it did?”

“Best guess at the moment would be some sort of temporary electromagnetic interference. After we crashed the systems rebooted just fine, minus the ones damaged in the crash of course.” 

“Oh, Virgil’s not going to like that,” Gordon chuckled making note to not be in the area when Virgil showed up, “But, that's what I was thinking as well. If there is constant occurrences of electromagnetic activity it may be keeping the fish and other forms of life from coming into the area.” 

“I see,” Scott mused, “How deep are we?” 

“Just about to 1,000 feet. I’m taking it slow so as not to miss anything.” 

“How deep can Kayo dive with her equipment?” 

“Well considering Brains just supplied her with an underwater breathing apparatus similar to my own... she can go down a couple of thousand feet on her own. Anything past that you really need something like Thunderbird 4.” 

“Great,” Scott mumbled. They continued on in silence for a bit. Gordon had stopped descending and puttered around in a rough search pattern for a few minutes. Scott sat in the back nursing his growing headache. He was worried about his brothers. John had blood running down his face in his last call, he hoped nothing else had happened to him. Virgil would be a grouch for days because of having to go into space, and Scott made a mental note to make sure all that grumpiness was directed solely at him. He was the one that had ordered him up there after all. If all went well, they would only spend maybe a half hour maximum in the space station and with their ascent and descent, they would be back on the solid ground within three hours. He looked at his watch, it had been almost two and a half since they took off. They should be getting close to home then. 

“Hey, Scott,” Gordon called hesitantly after a few minutes of silence. 

“Yeah,” Scott replied shaking his head a little forcing his worries away for the moment and focusing on his brother’s voice. 

“We’ve got some company down here.” 

“What kind of company?” 

“A submarine has their spotlights on us.” 

“Can you give me any more information? I’m blind as a bat back here.” 

“No, you’re as blind as a Malagasy cave fish.” 

“A what,” Scott asked thrown off by Gordon’s reply. 

“A Malagasy cave fish. It’s a blind fish and you’re underwater,” Gordon explained. 

“The submarine, Gordon, what kind is it?” 

“It looks like a Grenadier-class sub from the mid 20th century,” Gordon squinted into the spotlights that were pointing at him, “But it’s been altered, or maybe it was just built to resemble a Grenadier-class sub.” 

“Well, there’s no way a sub from the mid 20th century would still be working now, is there?”

“You take care of something and it will last you,” Gordon replied trying to mimic Scott’s own lecturing tone, “Plus it’s been getting popular to restore old ships like that.” 

“Have they tried to contact you yet?” 

“Nope, radio’s quiet.”

“Why don’t you try to contact them? Maybe they’ve seen Kayo.” 

“I’m not sure that is a good idea. There aren’t any markings on the hull, and legal subs are required to send out a warning beacon announcing that they are there, and this baby is silent.” 

“All we’re asking is if they’ve seen a wayward diver. I don’t care what they are actually here for,” Scott argued, and then groaned a little as the thumping in his head intensified. 

“Scott, you okay?” 

“Yeah, just a headache from earlier,” Scott fibbed. He was sure there was a mounting stress headache on top of the concussion from earlier, but he had to push it aside until everyone was back home and safe, “Is your med kit back here? I think I could do with some pain killers.” 

“Yeah, port side, under the dry tube hatch,” Gordon replied a little worried for his brother, “If you want I can take you back up. The pressure down here is killer on headaches.” 

“I'll be fine, squirt,” Scott replied trying to sound a bit more upbeat, “Do you want some, I imagine your head's throbbing a bit.” 

“Nah, it's not that bad. Anyways, I take one of those things and I'm out like a light,” Gordon laughed, “So, are we just going to pass by as if we never saw them?” 

“We’re International Rescue, not spies. Contact them and tell them the truth; we were responding to a destress call and were looking for signs of the downed plane and think the pilot went diving when we happened upon them.” 

“F.A.B.,” Gordon replied as he flipped the radio on. He was hesitant, his squid sense was tingling and not in a good way. This sub reeked of trouble, “This is Thunderbird 4 of International Rescue, please respond.” Gordon waited, but the sub maintained it’s silence. “I repeat, this is Thunderbird 4 of International Rescue. We are looking for a downed pilot, have you seen anyone?” Gordon was holding his breath, hoping that the sub was just going to pass by them, but after a moment the radio crackled to life. 

“This is the Golden Hind. We have our torpedoes locked onto your craft. You will come in and dock on hatch two or we will fire.” The radio returned to silence. 

“Did you hear that, oh fearless leader,” Gordon groaned as he reached for his controls to take the sub in. 

“Do as they say,” Scott sighed, “Last thing we need is to be blown up.” Gordon brought his mini sub up and locked it onto airlock number 2 as instructed. Flipping his chair back, he opened the cargo hold so Scott could get into the airlock with him. Cautiously he checked to make sure he had a good connection, and then slowly opened the hatch. They were met by three men with guns pointing straight at them. 

 

“That is some flimsy excuse,” A burly man with a shaved head and full beard laughed as he pushed Scott into a small room. 

“It’s not an excuse, we’re telling the truth,” Scott was furious. He had explained why they had been diving in that area, but the men that had greeted them did not seem interested at all with what he had to say. “We’re looking for a friend,” Scott tried once again to get them to believe him, but he could feel his frustration and blood pressure rise, “Surely you’ve heard of us.” 

“Oh, we’ve heard of you,” The burly man smirked, “Do gooders who try to save people. But you weren’t able to save my kid from terrorist attacks in the middle east two years ago.” 

“Terrorist attacks?” 

“A small village off the Gulf coast, it was burning and you just hung out nearby not even trying to make sure everyone was safe,” The burly man spat into Scott’s face. Scott took two paces back looking at the man in shock.

“Scott, don’t listen,” Gordon warned knowing just what accident the man referred to. It hadn’t been terrorists, though that had been a thought at the time. The GDF had forbade International Rescue from going into the disaster zone because they feared there was even more danger. Scott was not happy and had some how convinced Colonel Casey to at least let them evacuate the village. 

“You shut up,” the man’s pudgy friend spat as he threw Gordon in with Scott, “You two will stay here until we decide otherwise.” 

“I say we go check out that little sub of theirs,” The burly man smirked as he pulled the door closed. They could hear the click of the lock and their voices fade as they walked away. 

“You better not hurt Thunderbird 4,” Gordon yelled, even though he knew they probably couldn’t hear him. He punched the door and then pulled on it, trying to see how secure it was. Unfortunately, it was sealed tight. He knew that his bird was safe, he had made sure that the hatch locked as soon as they had left it, and it would take a genius hacker to unlock it. “What are we going to do now, Scott,” Gordon turned around to look at his brother, Scott always knew what to do in situations like this. Not that they had ever been in a situation like this, but regardless he knew Scott would have a plan. 

Scott was still staring at the door in shock. He had known just which rescue the man was speaking of. He had called the all clear himself. There were no others in that village, but how could he be sure. If they had stayed any longer they would have been in the line of fire, but still, what if they had left someone behind. Now, because if his incompetence at that rescue he had gotten himself and Gordon in a dire situation. They had no comms, and by the time Virgil and them had returned to earth and started to miss them, they would be far from the wreckage of Thunderbird 2. True, they themselves, as well as their birds had trackers, but without Thunderbird 5 how precise were they if they had to rely on the world GPS satellites. Add to that, would Virgil be up to a rescue after being forced into space? If John was hurt, he wouldn’t be able to come, if Virgil was still suffering from his sickness, he would be grounded as well. That only left Alan. Would Alan be able to come to their rescue on his own, without any of his older brothers around for help? It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Alan, if he had to he would come, but he didn’t want Alan to have to do that on his own. Maybe he should have gone up with Alan instead of making Virgil. He had no problem with space travel, but he was also worried about Kayo. She was supposed to check in with them daily, but had missed the past two day’s check-ins. They had all been too busy with rescues to go find her at the time, and now that she had contacted them, Scott wanted to go and find her. John had just been a quick pick-up and go, surely Virgil could handle that. But what if he couldn’t? What if Alan had to deal with not one injured brother, but two. It was all Scott’s fault. He knew it, but he couldn’t show it. He had to be strong for his younger brothers. He had to be the leader.  

Gordon was starting to freak out a little. The look on Scott’s face was one he had never seen on his brother. Scott was holding a hand to his head, his eyes were wide and unfocused, and his mouth hung open. It looked as if his mind was trying to work, but something had broken, and Scott was frozen in pain. 

“Scott,” Gordon called softly as he took a hesitant step forward, “Don’t let what they said bother you. It wasn’t our fault. His kid may have died in the initial explosion. We got all the living out of that village.” Gordon reached his brother and put a hand on his arm, squeezing it. Slowly Scott looked down at him, his eyes still unfocused. It was then that Gordon noticed the black circles under his eyes. Shit, when was the last time he had slept? Gordon thought hard. The past few days had been busy, one call after another. They had all taken turns to sleep though. Alan had piloted Thunderbird 2 for the last rescue while Virgil rested. However, Scott had always been in Thunderbird 1. Had he not taken a break during all those rescues? Gordon started to doubt it. He then remembered back to that morning. He and Alan had gone to bed a few hours before sunrise, Virgil had just woken up, and Scott was still out on a mission. They had slept for only five hours when Scott had woke Gordon, he wanted everyone in the lounge because of a situation with Thunderbird 5. Gordon had passed Virgil and Scott on his way to the kitchen for a quick bite to eat and the words he had heard then suddenly made sense. 

 

“Scott, this is it,” Virgil frowned cornering his older brother. 

“Not yet,” Scott replied trying to side step him to get to the lounge, “I want to make sure everyone is safe first.”

“Promise me, then. As soon as John is home.” 

“I promise.” 

 

Adding to the fact that Scott probably hadn’t slept in the last twenty-four or more hours, he hit his head twice, and was suffering from a headache that Gordon was sure was worse than he was letting on. Here in this small room there was nothing to keep him awake, to keep him busy, and Scott’s body was shutting down. Gordon took his arm and led him to one of the cots hanging from the wall.“No,” Scott growled pulling his arm away, “We have to find a way out.” 

“There is no way out,” Gordon argued, grabbing his arm again, “We have to wait till those guys come back.” 

“There must be a vent, another door, a secret entrance, an airlock…” Scott’s head was swinging from side to side looking for options, trying to keep himself active and moving. He moved from one wall to the next, moving the hammocks aside and feeling the walls for something. Gordon had to push him back to the wall again with his hands on his older brother’s chest trying to keep him there. Scott looked down at him again, with the same vague, unfocused eyes seeming to have just noticed his younger brother there, “You need to rest, Gordon.” 

“HA!” Gordon barked, sounding very much like Virgil for a moment which seemed to snap the older Tracy out of his mumbling. “Scott,” Gordon called lowering his voice and trying to sound like his brother mimicking what he had heard earlier, “this is it, you need rest.” 

“But we’re stuck,” Scott argued.

“And there’s nothing to do but wait. Rest, I’ll wake you when the other’s get here.” 

“What about you?” 

“I’m fine. Once you’ve rested, I’ll take a nap.” 

“Promise you’ll wake me. Don’t let me oversleep.” 

“Promise.” 

Slowly Scott collapsed onto a low hanging hammock. “I have to be strong,” he mumbled as he leaned his head against the wall and stared at the light in the ceiling, “I have to be strong for Gordon.” 

“And you will be,” Gordon replied, finding it hard to keep the act going, seeing his brother so out of it, “You just need some rest.” Slowly and hesitantly, Scott allowed his eyes to close. His breathing eased and he was asleep. Gordon gently pulled him down so that he was laying in the hammock and pulled his feet up into it. He wouldn’t be able to sleep long, Gordon knew, but at least he was sleeping. Gordon sat there and watched his brother’s breathing, counting the breaths, making sure there wasn’t anything else going on with him, because he knew he wouldn’t tell any of them if there was. Gordon couldn’t help but wonder, just how many times the situation was reversed. How many times Scott sat by his bed and watched him sleep. Gordon knew that there was one year that would trump all the others in that aspect. One year in which Gordon could remember waking up to find Scott asleep in the chair in his room night after night. He had yelled at Scott for doing it, for suffocating him. He understood now, though, the fear that if you looked away that breathing may stop. Gordon sat, and waited. Watching Scott sleep and hoping that Virgil, Alan, and John would get back to Earth soon, and come save them. 

 


	5. Is This Mission Over Yet?

Gordon and Scott were stuck in that room for what seemed like a very long time. Scott slept peacefully, as Gordon sat on a hammock across from him and just watched him. He had tried several times to contact someone on his short range comm, but to no avail. Thunderbird 4’s comms had been constructed with the assumption that either Thunderbird 2 or Thunderbird 5 would be there to relay the signal. 

“Thunderbird 4 calling, well, anyone. John, Virgil, Alan? Are you guys back on Earth yet,” Gordon asked to the silence around them not really expecting an answer, “Kayo, where did you go? Brains, Gran…” Gordon’s stomach rumbled, that bagel seemed like forever ago and he was hungry enough he might even be tempted to eat Grandma Tracy’s food. To be honest, she was getting better thanks to Max’s help, but her cookies still tasted like feet. Gordon sighed and laid down in his hammock. He had never been good at waiting. He would have much rather been diving, swimming, surfing doing anything but waiting. 

It was several minutes later, that Gordon finally heard some activity coming their way. More specifically, footsteps. He jumped down from the hammock he was on so that he could be prepared for whoever opened the door. He hoped it was some skinny guy, someone he might be able to knock over and tie up. Unfortunately it was the big burly guy that had brought them there in the first place. 

“What’s wrong with your friend,” he asked gesturing to Scott in his hammock.

“He’s just napping. He’ll wake up if you’re any louder,” Gordon replied trying to stand a little taller. 

“Must be quite the sound sleeper,” The man eyed Scott suspiciously and then shoved a tray into Gordon’s gut. Taken by surprise, Gordon looked down at the cardboard like sea rations and water upon it. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I want you two alive, but purely for our own benefit,” The man laughed as he turned to leave. Without thinking much about it, Gordon raised the tray and slammed it down on the man’s head. He kept it there, hoping the guy was in shock and that was why he hadn’t collapsed yet. He wasn’t in shock, he reached up with his hand and snatched the tray out of Gordon’s. “Why you little runt,” The man threatened as he turned to face Gordon. 

“Hey, now,” Gordon stuttered, “I’m the fish, Alan’s the runt. You really need to keep us straight.” 

“How about I knock you out like your friend there,” the man waved a hand in Scott’s direction. Gordon knew he had absolutely no chance of fighting the guy, however, he had been fairly successful at deterring bullies when he was in school. He just had to out run, and out maneuver them. The man stepped forward and threw a punch in his direction, but Gordon ducked. The man threw another punch and Gordon ducked that one. He ducked three more punches and Gordon started to get a confidence boost, and decided to make a face at the man after the last attempt. That was when the man’s fist hit him right in the nose. Gordon blacked out for a moment and when he opened his eyes he was on the floor against the far wall. The man was laughing as he stood over him. 

“Whad you god against us,” Gordon asked, his voice thick and strangled from the blood running down the back of his throat. 

“Absolutely nothing,” The man shrugged, “Now, don’t make me angry again, I don’t want to damage the merchandise too much.” 

“Merchandise,” Gordon asked as he watched the man’s back disappear behind the door, “Whad did he mean by merchandise.” Gordon sat breathing through his mouth, gingerly touching the bridge of his nose which now protruded at an odd angle. He sighed, that had not gone as planned. Gordon glanced over to his brother and was surprised to see him move, he had brought his hand up to his head and groaned. Gordon leapt to his feet and then about fell down again as his head started to spin. He held it with his hands until it settled down, and then made a beeline to his brother. “Scod!” 

“What,” Scott asked not understanding the blob that moved above him. 

“Scod,” The blob said again. Gordon was happy and also a bit anxious that his brother was waking up already. Maybe after a catnap he would be ready to go, but for how long? “Scod, you awake?” 

Scott blinked a few times waiting for the image in front of him to come into focus. When it did, he sat bolt upright and grabbed Gordon by the shoulders, “Gordon! What happened?!”

“Noding, why,” Gordon replied as he tried to wipe some of the blood that was trickling out of his nose with the sleeve of his wetsuit, only succeeding in smearing it across his face. 

“Your face,” Scott gapped.

“Whad, is dere someding on it?” Gordon asked as he wiped it again. 

“Gordon, please help your overly stressed  brother by dropping the jokes for a moment,” Scott pleaded as he reached up to touch the protrusion on Gordon’s face. 

“Alrighd,” Gordon smirked, “I god punched in da face.” 

“Why?”

“Well, I did dry do hid da guy firsd,” Gordon mused, “Didn’d work do well.” 

“I can see,” Scott frowned, “Alright, sit down. We need to fix it before it causes some damage.” 

“I’m Fine. Led’s jusd dry do ged oud of here.” 

“No. We are going to fix this first,” Scott announced in his field commander voice. He stood up, a little wobbly still, and grabbed Gordon forcing him to sit down on the floor. 

“Can’d we ad leasd waid dill we ged back do Dunderbird 4?”

“No,” Scott leaned down and took Gordon’s nose between his thumb and first two fingers. Then quickly before Gordon had a chance to find an escape, he jerked the nose back into a more normal position. 

“AHHH!” Gordon yelled pulling away from Scott. He coughed a bit, choking on more blood that rushed down the back of his throat, but could already feel the difference. He could breath from it again, though it was still partially blocked due to the swelling. “I’m gonna look like a raccoon.” 

“Nah, no-one will tell the difference,” Scott laughed as he slowly stood up, “Have you tried any other way of getting out, other than pick a fight with a bully.” 

“What other way is there? The door is locked, and there aren’t any vents big enough for either of us,” Gordon reasoned, “I was hoping I could knock out whoever came in and then the door would be open.” 

“And leave me behind? Or were you going to drag me the length of the sub to get back to Thunderbird 4? Somehow avoiding our captors in the process?” 

“Well, I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Gordon admitted. 

“You need to work on that little, bro,” Scott shook his head and turned his attentions to the door, “This looks like a simple enough lock. Just the one in the handle, no secondary dead bolt.” 

“Wait, are you saying you know how to pick a lock,” Gordon asked as he stood up and walked over to where Scott stood by the door. 

“Well, I’m not Parker, but I’ve made my way past a few locks in my early days,” Scott grinned back at his brother, “When Virgil and I were little, John was a Toddler, and you were still a baby, Mom would lock the snacks in the pantry. We were still able to get to them, though it took her a little bit to realize what we were doing.” 

“Well, how did you do it?” Gordon asked his eyes wide.

“Well, it wasn’t so much picking the lock as it was popping the door open.” 

“Awesome, we have a plan and are back in business,” Gordon cheered. 

“Whoa, I never said I had a plan, I just said I might be able to open the door.” 

“Crap, you are still out of it,aren’t you.” Scott laughed at his little brother then turned to face him, “That I am. I feel like there are a hundred bees buzzing in my head. Can’t quite think straight. Speaking of which, I had a strange dream that Virgil was here too.”

“Hehe,” Gordon laughed nervously, “Nope just you and me. Anyways, you do realize that if any of us had done what you did, you’d ground us for a week at least!” 

“I would,” Scott mused, “Depending on the situation, at least a couple of weeks.” 

“And in this situation, where you aren’t clear minded enough to think of a way out,” Gordon pushed waiting to see what Scott would say. 

“You’ve got a point. A three week grounding at least,” Scott mused and looked at his brother in shock, “Wait, you’re not suggesting that I ground myself?” 

“Practice what you preach,” Gordon replied in a sing song voice, “Now get that door open so we can sneak back to Thunderbird 4 and get out of here.” 

“Yes, sir,” Scott saluted Gordon and then squatted down to get a better view of the door handle. It was a simple lock after all, and looked just like the old cupboard in their house in Kansas. Scott took out one of his grappling cartridges and pulled the wire out. Brains had designed the grappling wire the way he did for two reasons. One of which was that he wanted the wire thin enough so that they could carry several cartridges without it being too bulky. This allowed the wire to be thin enough to fit into the gap between the door and doorframe. He looped one end, placed it into the gap in the door and forced it down the other side of the latch. It took some time, and he had to stop a few times when they thought they had heard someone walking down the hall, but he pulled on the wire and the door popped open. 

“Yes!” Gordon cheered in a whisper. Scott hushed him, as he stuck his head out and peered down the hall. They had not left any guards on the door, nor anywhere nearby. 

“Okay,” Scott pulled his head back in and looked to his brother, “Here is the plan. We sneak through quietly, and get to Thunderbird 4 and back to Thunderbird 2. If they follow us, we’ll at least have the birds on our side.” 

“F.A.B.,” Gordon grinned. Scott blinked in shock at this, for with his face covered in blood he looked quite murderous. “What,” Gordon asked noticing Scott’s expression. 

“Nothing. Come on.” Scott led the way out of the room with Gordon following closely. They tip-toed down the hall, and paused at the first open door they came to. Scott peered into it, only to find another empty room full of hammocks. The next room was the same. This sub had accommodations for at least a crew of twelve, yet none of these rooms had any personal belongings in them. They continued down the hall toward the docking ports, and passed through an empty mess hall and engine room. 

“There is something not right going on,” Scott mused as they stopped at a door and peered in to see if it was all clear.

“What do you mean,” Gordon asked all smiles, “We’re having some awesome luck.” 

“Exactly. Where is everyone,” Scott asked as he slipped into the next area that led to the torpedo and docking room. It was in the tail of the sub, a large room that had torpedo tubes, and racks of torpedoes on one end and down the center, while the docking hatches were on either side. Scott pulled Gordon behind a stack of torpedoes as he finally caught a glimpse of some of the crew standing at one of the docking hatches. 

“I still don’t get why we’re abandoning the ship,” a portly one asked to his skinny friend. 

“This ship has been compromised,” The friend explained slowly as if he had already told him multiple times what was going on,” First that girl, and now those two guys. It was only meant as a temporary measure anyways. The EMF generator has been stowed onboard The Pelican, and we’ll resume operations up there.” 

“What about the prisoners?” 

“Who cares. The captain was going to ransom them, but decided it was too much of a hassle, not with everything else going on. We’ll just leave them here to die with the ship.” The sound of the airlock cycling stopped the second man from asking another questions. A man appeared from the other side, and greeted his too comrades, welcoming them abroad their mini sub that would take them to safety. Once they were onboard, the hatch closed, Gordon and Scott stepped out from their hiding spot. 

“Come on, Scott. Let’s get into Thunderbird 4 and get out of here. They’ll surely destroy this sub in some way.” 

“What if there are other prisoners,” Scott asked, his eyes wide as the realization hit him, “What if Kayo is still on board.” 

“She’s not,” Gordon pleaded with his brother, easily seeing that his mind still wasn’t functioning normally, “Look, I activated both of our trackers and searched for others. We’re the only two that showed up.” 

“What if she didn’t activate hers, or it was busted.” 

“I also called out on our short range comms. She didn’t answer.” 

“What if her wrist controller is broken,” Scott asked, clearly getting more and more worried. 

“The odds of both her tracker and comm being broken is astronomical,” Gordon tried again to get Scott to understand, “And she is smart, she would be trying to fix it as well.” Scott wasn’t listening. He was worrying and his mind was unable to stop itself from thinking the worst. Scott was already heading back down the length of the sub calling out for Kayo or anyone else that might be onboard. Gordon followed, trying to pull Scott back toward the hatches, but Scott was determined to make sure there was no one else down there with them. Finally Gordon relented, and figured if he helped, they could get the search done and back to Thunderbird 4 before anything major happened. They went down through the sub, checking every room and compartment, top and bottom for any sign of life. It had taken them almost a half hour to get through half of the sub, and were just heading for a set of stairs to the lower level when an alarm sounded. 

“What is that?” Scott asked, covering his ears. 

“Shit,” Gordon exclaimed looking frantically in either direction, “Depressurization alarm, we’re taking on water.” 

“We still have to see if anyone else is here,” Scott commanded as he jumped down the stairs before him and took off down the corridor. 

“Scott,” Gordon called as he raced after his brother, “We need to get back to Thunderbird 4 and get some equipment.” 

“We don’t have time,” Scott argued as he pulled open any door he came to. 

“Scott, wait!” Gordon had noticed the water leaking through the door just as Scott turned the handle. The door burst open, throwing Scott against the wall, water rushing into the corridor in which they stood. Gordon struggled against the current of water to reach his brother. He was pushed back twice, but as the water rose, it became easier. Gordon reached for his brother’s arm and was able to pull his head out of the water. Scott was unconscious, probably from yet another hit to the head. The corridor was filling quickly and Gordon knew they needed to get out of there, now. He swam back to the stairwell, and pulled Scott up to the still dry upper level. There was a hatch to seal off the stairwell, and Gordon pushed it closed and locked it. The water was coming in fast. There hadn’t been an explosion, so it was probably another hatch that had been set to open, so that if the pirates ever wanted to salvage their ship they could. 

Gordon kneeled down next to his brother, and leaned in to listen, he wasn’t breathing. Cursing a bit to himself, he tilted his chin back and breathed into his mouth once, twice, three times. Then turning to his chest, he placed his hands on the breastbone and pushed down as hard as he could, as fast as he could. After a minute he returned to giving him breaths. As he breathed air into Scott’s lungs he could see the water slipping through the hatch next to them. The upper level would be flooded soon. He continued CPR and within a couple of seconds Scott started to cough up water. Gordon turned him over on his side so that the water would be expelled from his lungs. Back on his back Gordon leaned over and listened. He was breathing on his own again, but the water had started to rise quicker and was already about to cover Scott’s chest. Standing behind him, Gordon reached under his brother’s arms and lifted him from around the chest. He pulled him then, back down the corridor to hatch two where Thunderbird 4, hopefully, still sat waiting. 

The water was filling the corridor fast, which was a blessing and a curse for Gordon. It was easier to pull Scott along when the water was waist high, but soon it was becoming difficult and Gordon had to start swimming with Scott. Knowing that there would soon be no air left for either of them Gordon paused for a moment and reached around to his back where his octopus was kept. It was the backup regulator that he would have for himself in emergencies or for anyone he was rescuing. Never thought he’d be using it on his brother. He brought the mouthpiece around and wedged it into Scott’s mouth. Then he reached up and unclasped the yellow regulator at his throat and stuffed it into his own mouth. Pulling Scott closer to him, he used his left hand to pinch Scott’s nose to keep him from breathing from it and dove under the water. 

It took him no time at all to reach the hatch and Thunderbird 4, though the torpedoes in their racks looked ready to fall off at any moment as he snuck past them. He pulled Scott into the cargo bay of Thunderbird 4, laying him on the floor for the moment. Gordon then went back through the airlock and into the cockpit, quickly disconnecting from the sinking sub and taking off for safer ground. He didn’t make it far when his thrusters started making strange sounds, and then stopped responding at all. 

After a few choice words, Gordon went back into the cargo bay, and flipped down one of the emergency stretches that were attached to either side of the hull. Then he reached down and hulled his brother up on it. 

“Either I need to work out some more, or you need to lose some weight,” Gordon grunted as he pulled Scott onto the stretcher and strapped him down. Once secure Gordon pulled out the med kit and started setting things up. He pulled the oxygen mask over Scott’s face, and secured  it with the elastic strap. Setting the small machine next to Scott’s head, he leaned down and listened to his heart. It was beating a little fast, but strong, he didn’t think he would need the AED. Gordon then felt around his head, and found two bumps. One near the hairline on his forehead was probably where he hit his head when Thunderbird 2 crashed. Another one on the back of his head was just starting to appear, and that was probably where he hit it more recently. Luckily no skin had been torn or cut, so there was no blood to deal with. Gordon had probably bled enough for the two of them as it was. 

Once Scott had been taken care of, Gordon reached for his helmet and secured it firmly onto his head, and placed his regulator into the slot in the front of his mask. He grabbed a small toolkit he kept for emergencies like this, and then exited the mini sub through the back airlock. He swam over to one of the thrusters and pulled up on the hatch that led to the mechanics of the engine. None of the electric was assessable from the outside for obvious reason. If it were an electric problem, there were places inside the sub where he could access the panels and try and fix the issues. But first, he had to make sure it wasn’t a simple one. The side of the thruster had been damaged, though Gordon couldn’t remember where that had happened at. Last he knew, all the small dings and dents had been taken out of her during her last maintenance run. He looked into the open hatch and frowned. Sitting in the way of the fan, and belt that moved it was a wrench. Probably the same one that had dented the side. Reaching in he pulled out the wrench and then checked to see what damage it had caused. The blades on the fan had been bent, and the wheel wobbly in its seat. That would have to get fixed later, but it might just hold for now. 

Shutting the hatch, Gordon went to the other side to inspect it. There were more dents on this side of Thunderbird 4 which just broke Gordon’s heart. What did his bird ever do to anyone to deserve this kind of punishment. He pulled open the hatch to find a hammer wedged in this time. It was stuck good, and he found himself using the wrench to try and free the hammer. He felt that he had done more damage than needed, but was finally able to get the hammer out after a few minutes of struggling. The blades on this side were in worse shape, torn in spots, and the belt was almost split in two. The belt he could fix, he always carried spare parts like that just in case. He reached into his tool pack and pulled out the extra belt and a small wrench. Carefully loosening the gears, he replaced the belt and tightened everything up again. 

Gordon make his way back into Thunderbird 4, checking on Scott as he crawled back into the cockpit. He held his breath as he started his bird up again and crossed his fingers as he activated the thrusters. They sputtered to life, and the mini sub took off limply from the seabed. Gordon instigated emergency surfacing procedure. He couldn’t surface faster than the sub could adjust to the pressure or else he would risk damaging her even more. About fifteen minutes later, Thunderbird 4 surfaced. Gordon looked around, trying to figure out just where they were. He activated the tracker in Thunderbird 4 to search for Thunderbird 2. It was there, just to the south. They hadn’t gone very far after all, thankfully. Gordon took a deep breath of relief as he turned his bird around and headed back to the module. 

He had left the module’s door open, thinking they would be right back, and backed the sub up to the lift and felt the jerk as the latch caught and automatically started pulling him in. He flipped back in his chair ad crawled back into the cargo bay to check on Scott. He was still breathing, but still out of it. Deciding it would be best to leave him be for the moment, Gordon exited his bird out the back hatch and into the main module. The inside of the module had been completely gutted. Those pirates had been up to see what they could do with their machines. Gordon fumed. In fact, most of the items in the module with Thunderbird 4 were only minor pieces, things you could find most places, but with a few upgrades from Brains. 

Deep down a flame of hatred, and fury attempted to consume him, but Gordon was exhausted, and knew that if he tried to track that ship, he’d probably end up dead. With a frustrated sigh of defeat, Gordon shut the module up and slipped out through the small door, making sure it was sealed securely to keep Scott safe. Gordon then swam to shore. 

He hiked over the small ridge that Thunderbird S had crashed into and found that an area where the separated tail had probably been, but was now gone. One wing had also been taken, but the main part of the bird remained. He then turned to the behemoth and climbed onboard. The entrance to the ship from the module looked like they had attempted to break into it, but had given up. He thought that he should be grateful for that, but was finding it hard to feel anything at the moment. He was running out of steam, but knew that there was a lot left for him to do. 

He made his way to the cockpit and sat down in Virgil’s seat flipping switches and initiating a full systems check. The comms were out, Scott had mentioned that earlier, and the front left vertical thruster was misfiring. Other than that, and of course the smashed nose cone, Thunderbird 2 was in decent shape. However, Gordon would have to try and fix that thruster or he would not be getting home any time soon. 

They had all had lessons on how to repair each other’s machines, but each of them were protective of their birds, and thus had not actually attempted repairs. Gordon knew the theory behind their engines, but had never been under the hood, so to say. He pulled up the plans from Thunderbird 2’s computers and downloaded them into his wrist controller, then he made his way to the machinery room to grab the tools he thought he would need. He climbed up onto the top of the bird, secured his line, and took a quick look out to sea to make sure the module with Thunderbird 4 and Scott were still there. With that fear quelled for the moment he repelled down so that he was even with the troubled thruster. The side in question was nearest the rocks and there was a large dent down the side of the green bird. Gordon couldn’t help but wince in sympathy, Virgil was not going to be happy. He looked to his right and could see an outcropping of rock that was probably to blame for the condition of the thruster. He found the access point and had to use a crowbar to pry the panel open. It had been caught in the outcropping and upon getting the panel off, found that part of the panel had caught on the rocks and torn slightly producing a sharp jagged edge along the bottom.

Being careful to avoid the sharp metal Gordon inspected the thruster and quickly found the problem. He couldn’t help but smile. Only one part had truly gotten damaged in the crash, and it was a part that he knew Virgil kept in stock in the supply room onboard. Pulling himself up, Gordon looked out to sea again, confirmed that his precious cargo was still floating there, and then made his way back into Thunderbird 2. He made a beeline to the supply room and found the part easily, quietly thanking Virgil for being so obsessive about keeping things neat. He was back up on top of Thunderbird 2, another quick glance to make sure she wasn’t drifting too far way, and then repelled down again. Gordon pulled out a wrench and started to unbolt the damaged part. The part was bolted down by two bolts, and it took all of Gordon’s remaining strength to get the first one loosened. Pocketing the bolt, he would need it to reattach the new part, he went to work on the next bolt. This one was stubborn. He pushed, he pulled, but it did not want to budge. He went from thanking Virgil to cursing him for tightening them so tight. He pulled himself up, so that he was above the bolt and started to push down with his hands and all the weight he could. His right hand slipped and went straight down into the damaged hull, cutting it straight across the palm. Gordon let slip a word his Grandma would have never guessed he knew, and pulled his hand to him. He slowly looked down at it, and then quickly away. The only thing he saw was a pool of blood. He clenched his teeth and then clenched his fist. He wanted to get this part changed out and then he would deal with his hand. He swung over to the other side of the thruster so he could better use his left hand. He pulled himself up higher and used his foot to kick the bolt loose. The bolt finally submitted to him, but the wrench slipped off and fell to the ground below. Gordon didn’t care. He really didn’t care. He pulled the part off, threw it to the ground, a move Virgil would probably yell at him for, and then slammed the new part on, using the bolts to secure it, hand tightening them as best as he could. He pulled out another wrench, one slightly smaller, and tried to tighten them a bit more, but quickly gave up. 

He pulled himself back to the roof of the ship and then slowly made his way down to the med bay. He tried to look at his hand again, but all he could see was blood. It was dripping down his arm and off his elbow by this point. He took a clean cloth and tried to soak up the blood a bit, but every time he tried to look at it his vision wavered. He had taken care of multiple injured people with worse injuries with no problem, but looking at his own blood was somehow so much worse. He gave up and grabbed a clean gauze laying it over the cut and then wrapping his hand with a bandage. It would have to do. If everything worked out, he’d be home soon and Virgil could do a better job. 

Gordon made his way unsteadily back to the cockpit of Thunderbird 2 and flopped into the pilot seat. He scooted the seat up and even had to jack it higher, Virgil and Scott were both a little taller than him after all. Once situated, he started the pre-flight checks. Yes, he knew the comm was out, yes, he knew the access panel over that thruster was gone, deal with it. He over rode some of the safeties and started the bird up. Everything seemed to be working fine… well, maybe not fine, but it was working. He took Thunderbird 2 up into the air, and hovered over module 4. He had never reconnected a module before and it took him a couple tries to get the grapples in the right spots. Once the module was back in place, he left her on auto and went to check on Scott. 

Scott was just as he had left him, on oxygen, and unconscious. He disconnected the stretcher and activated the hover capabilities so he could take him to the med bay on Thunderbird 2, where he would be a bit more comfortable. Gordon was starting to stumble by this point. It hadn’t really occurred to him, there were other things more pressing at hand, but he hadn’t had anything in his stomach since a few sips of coffee, and the bagel that morning. That had been almost seven hours ago. Plus the injuries he had sustained during this mission, he was really in just as bad shape as Scott. However, someone had to get them home, and Gordon was at least conscious, so that was his goal above anything else. He was able to transfer Scott from the hover stretcher to a more permanent bed in the med bay with one hand, and did his best to strap him in, though his one working hand was now shaking just as bad as his injured one. he strapped the hover stretcher onto a space in the wall with others like it, and made his way back to the cockpit. He sat down with a sigh and then looked over to where Thunderbird S sat sullenly. He couldn’t leave it here, so he maneuvered Thunderbird 2 over to her, and shot the grappling hooks onto her. He didn’t have a good hold, but he didn’t care. He lifted the poor craft into the air and headed for home. 

 

“Come on Gordo, you can make it,” Gordon called to himself. It had taken longer than expected, to make it home. But with the damaged plane, and lugging Thunderbird S underneath, Gordon really should have expected it. However, he was doing his best just to stay awake. He tried his comms again, with no luck, and began to swing around for the final approach. He let go of the steering wheel and rubbed his eyes, and then grabbed it quickly when Thunderbird 2 started to bank too far to the left. Gordon couldn’t even tell if the runway was ready for him, his eyesight was fading fast, but wasn’t about to care one way or the other. He just wanted to be done with this damned mission already. 

He lowered Thunderbird 2 down for landing, and was caught off guard by something pulling him back. He had forgotten about Thunderbird S below him. He quickly let go of the steering wheel and hit the button to detach the load. Thunderbird 2 launched forward it’s nose down, crashing and skidding onto the landing strip. The trees were only part of the way down, and the big green plane chopped them down spinning out of control as it slid down the runway until, finally, Thunderbird 2 crashed into the hanger door coming to a stop. 


	6. Not As Planned

Kayo woke up to the smell of fish, and it wasn’t because she had hung out with Gordon all day. This was the rancid smell of dying fish. Slowly she opened her eyes and blinked a few times till they came into focus. She was in the dark underbelly of a ship, but there was a bright light shining down into it. She blinked a few more times and tried to block the light only to find that her hands were bound behind her. They were numb and felt stiff and swollen, as if they were twice the size they should be. She tried to adjust her position and found that her feet had been bound as well, and they too felt tight in her boots. She started to squeeze her hands into fists and then stretch them out again, over and over, as she tried to adjust herself to where the circulation could be re-established to her limbs. She started twisting her feet and moving her toes as best as she could as well. Within moments feeling returned with the painful prickling of pins and needles. She winced as she continued to move her hands and feet and took a moment to look around her. 

She quickly found the source of the smell. A pile of fish, she was sure Gordon could name, sat several feet in front of her below the hatch that was letting in the sunlight. A shadow passed over the hatch as more fish came falling in splattering her with salt water and who knew what else. She was bound around a steel pole father back in the cargo bay, but if they kept fishing she could easily find herself buried under the stink. Already it was threatening to make her ill. If it got closer, she was sure she’d be as sick as Virgil in space. She pulled on her restraints a bit to get a feel as to just how she was being restrained. They didn’t make any sounds against the pole, and were just a bit stretchy, so they were plastic ties of some sort. She could see the ties on her ankles and assumed they were the same. This was some good news to Kayo. While strong, plastic ties could be broken, it just may take some time. As she pulled on her restraints she thought back about how she had ended up in this situation in the first place. 

 

Two days earlier Kayo was relaxing by the pool enjoying a little bit of down time. Gordon was in the pool swimming laps like crazy, while Alan sat on the end keeping track of his time. Virgil was busy with some maintenance to Thunderbird 2, and Scott was inside talking to John in Thunderbird 5. She adjusted the umbrella next to her when her wrist communicator started to beep. 

“This is Kayo, Lady Penelope, what’s the pleasure?” 

“Well, you look like you’re enjoying yourself. No rescues at the moment?” 

“Not since this morning, actually. Were you trying to get a hold of Scott, him and John have been talking for the past hour I think.” 

“No, actually I wanted to talk to you,” Lady Penelope smiled as Kayo raised her eyebrows, “I’m in India visiting some family friends and have heard some very interesting rumors.” 

“What kind of rumors?” 

“Well, There seems to be some issues with fishing south west of the Maldives.” 

“Fishing, isn’t that something Gordon would be interested in?” 

“I’ll leave that up to you, but it’s the lack of fish that is the problem.” 

“Lack? The World Environmental Society has put major restrictions on overfishing haven’t they?” 

“They have, but the rumors are saying that it’s not due to overfishing, but do to spirits.” 

“Spirits,” Kayo asked.

“Yes, but I think the reason is more human in nature, and quite possibly due to someone I’m sure you’d like to find.” 

“Hmm… the Hood has been rather quiet as of late. But what kind of scheme could he have that involved scaring the fish away.” 

“Or maybe, that is only a side effect,” Lady Penelope suggested. 

“True. Go ahead and send me the coordinates, I think I would like to check this out,” Kayo smiled. 

She jumped from her lounge chair and hurried to her room to change. She left right after telling Scott only that she had a lead she wanted to check out. He, of course, made her promise to check in a few times so they knew she was okay. He could be such a mother hen at times. She took off and laid course toward the Indian Ocean. 

It took her a few hours to reach the coordinates that Lady Penelope had given her, but off the bat she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. There were a few ships down there, mostly shipping vessels, but a few fishing trawlers as well. She zoomed in to some of those boats and, just like what Penelope was saying, they looked rather light on cargo and their nets hung empty along their sides.

Kayo started doing scans of the area, looking for any oddities that she could find. She flew over multiple times, but came up with absolutely nothing. She started to wonder if maybe what was going on here was more complicated and not due to any one person. She knew, however, that scanning for just one day was not enough proof either way. So, she found a small uninhabited island to land on for the night and camped out. 

It was nice sometimes to camp out by herself. No technology except what was on  Thunderbird S of course, but just to sit by the fire on the beach, and watch the stars above. Maybe she could convince the boys to join her one night, on the beach, away from the house and her lights and games. Kayo laughed at the image that popped into her head. Then again, it may not be that peaceful with all of them there. 

The next morning, Kayo took off once again in Thunderbird S, stopped in the Maldives to top off her fuel tank, and then conducted her search just as she had done the previous day. She spent five hours flying around the area. But couldn’t seem to find anything amiss. Finally just as she was about to give up, she noticed something strange. A submarine floating next to a fishing trawler. She flew over the pair and tried to get a good view, wondering if they might have been up to no good. She had just passed over them when the controls of Thunderbird S stopped responding. She pulled up on the stick hoping to glide the plane down, but a quick visual scan of the area showed no good place to do so. 

She spotted a small island with a small ridge of rock down the middle. Thunderbird S was just about as long as this little island was wide. It didn’t even have a big enough beach to land there, but it was either that or the ocean. Bringing Thunderbird S low, she tried to come in on the backside of the island, but did not have enough room or control to bring her down easily. The plane smashed into the rocky ground and skidded to the edge of the rock, stopping just as the cockpit cleared the small cliff. 

Kayo didn’t move for the longest time, her hands clenched to the controls, her knuckles white. Finally as her body demanded that she needed air again, she let out the breath she had been holding and took in a shaky one to replace it. In and out, she breathed as she looked below her at a good fifty foot drop. She gently opened the cockpit and climbed onto the back of her bird and looked her over. She was in horrible shape. She had felt the end of the plane crash down just as the front had mounted the ridge, and could now see that it had been hard enough to break the tale clean off. Not to mention that one of the wings had caught and been pulled almost halfway off as well. She knew then that she was not going to be able to get back to Tracy Island on her own. 

“Thunderbird Shadow to Tracy Island, come in,” She called as she tapped on her wrist controller while looking out at the ocean around her. When there was no answer she tried again, “Thunderbird Shadow to Thunderbird 5, John are you there?” When there was still no reply she looked down and saw to her horror a large crack through the face of it. She wasn’t going to be able to contact anyone with it in that condition. She sighed and carefully climbed back into the cockpit. The plane wavered for a moment, adjusting to the added weight, trying to decide if she were heavy enough to pitch forward or not. Thankfully, it decided not. Kayo started flipping switches trying to get the radio in Thunderbird Shadow to respond, “Thunderbird Shadow to Tracy Island, can you hear me?” There was nothing but static. Cursing under her breath, she climbed back out and made her way down the body of the plane to where the communications module was hidden. The side of the plane was torn badly, and she had to find a rock to help her pry the panel off. Once open, she could see the damage done to the unit. Normally, she would have trashed it and just replaced it with a non damaged one, but there weren’t any supply stores anywhere near this small island. She decided to climb to the highest point, which was to the west of where she was. 

It was an easy climb and only a hundred feet above sea level. It was basically like walking on top of Thunderbird 2. She could see for miles around her, and there was nothing there. The island she was on was the largest in a very small chain that continued to the north. Other than that, there was just water. Just for the small amount of time she stood there she could feel the sun beating down on her head and back. It was too hot to be doing anything at the moment, so she climbed back down and found shelter under an outcropping of rock. It was cooler in the shade, and Kayo took stock of her situation. She had no way of getting in contact with either Tracy Island or Thunderbird 5. In addition to that, with her wrist controller broken, even her tracking beacon may not be visible to either as well. To add to her bad luck, she hadn’t told Scott any specifics about where she was going, nor had she checked in with them at all since she had left. 

She looked back up at her bird and sighed, Brains had given her a motorbike that could be detached from the plane for quick landing and pursuit. Maybe she should recommend that he see if he could transform the bike into a boat when needed. That wouldn’t help her at the moment though so she thought some more. With just the quick look she had at the communications module it looked hopeless, but maybe another look was needed. If she could get even a weak signal out, at least they would know that she needed their help. There was, unfortunately, little to no shade on the island, and trying to work in this sun was not recommended. She could survive the night, she had a few rations and some water still. Best for now to hang tight and wait. Once night came, she could rest a little and get up early to work on the radio. With luck, she’d be back on Tracy Island by noon tomorrow. 

Kayo didn’t sleep much that night, she just sat watching the moon on the water. As soon as it started to get light, she made her way back to her bird, pulled the unit from Thunderbird S and took it to the outcropping she had slept under to look at it. Kayo didn’t know how she was going to get the radio working. She had a basic tool kit stashed onboard, but it still did not include spare parts, and she needed some. One of the circuit boards was completely busted and without a replacement she wasn’t sure what to do. She sat starting at the components with disgust when a thought hit her. Could she possibly use some parts from her wrist controller. The board that powered the communications on it should be similar, though it wouldn’t be as strong of a signal. She pulled the small computer off her arm and used a screwdriver to pry it open. The main circuit board that controlled the unit had been bent and several connection broken, but the section that controlled the communications functions was still intact. She laid out her tools and started to work. 

It took her several hours and many failed attempts but she thought she might just have figured out how to do it. She had been able to use parts from her wrist controller, however in doing so her working tracking unit was no longer working. It was not quite noon when she climbed back to Thunderbird S and reinstalled the faulty unit, and then climbed back into the cockpit. She flipped a few switches took a deep breath and hoped for some luck. There was no static and she let out her breath and announced her call, “Tracy Island, come in. This is Thunderbird Shadow. Tracy Island, can you hear me?” 

“Kayo,” A reply came and Kayo couldn’t help but do a little jig in her seat, “there’s static… receiving… signal.” 

“Scott, I’ve found something peculiar going on, but I need your help,” Kayo announced into the receiver hoping he got it. 

“Repeat…. breaking…” 

“Thunderbird Shadow has crashed, I need your help to get back,” Kayo was holding on to her seat hoping this was getting through.

“Kayo… you?” 

“Send Thunderbird One and Two, I need to come back, I crashed,” but just as she had finished speaking the lights on the control panel went dead, along with the radio, “Damn!” She punched the panel in front of her and then shook her hand. She hadn’t damaged anything more than it already was, but she was still frustrated. “They know I need help, or at least something is up. If they call Lady Penelope she can tell them where I am,” She sighed trying to justify some patience, “It might take another day, but I’ve been trained for this kind of situation, I can get through it.” 

Kayo sat under her little outcropping of rock but was getting bored fast. She figured that it would take them a couple of hours to get here, they did first have to figure out just where she was after all. Maybe she should have mentioned that. She shook her head, it wasn’t time to criticize what was already done. She looked out into the ocean and then made a decision. She climbed back to Thunderbird S and pulled out a small air tank and regulator. It was similar to the one that Gordon used, though this one wouldn’t let her do any deep sea diving like he did. It would however allow her to maybe do some fishing, some fresh food would be a nice change, and to see if there was anything strange about the water in the area. 

She pulled on the equipment and walked out to the water, diving in once the water was over her waist. She swam along the surface for a bit, and then pulled on her mask, and stuffed the regulator into her mouth. The air was stale and cold, but doable. She didn’t plan to be under for that long anyways. She dove down into the warm water and made her way several hundred feet down, the water slowly cooling down on her skin as she went. The ocean was quiet, eerily so. There were no fish swimming around, and she was getting far enough down that the light having trouble filtering through. She made sure not swim too far away, she didn’t want to get lost and not be able to get back to the small island.

She decided after a few minutes to swim a little farther down, toward a cave she saw. It looked like it was part of the island she had crashed onto, she just hoped it wasn’t the home of some larger breed of sea life that was currently starving for some food. In her attempt to dive a bit deeper, she did not notice the large shadow appear over her. She was just about to the cave when something grabbed her from behind and scooped her up into its arms. She turned and struggled, but the more she struggled the more difficult it became to move. 

She was lifted out of the water, and she found herself stuck in a net, a fishing net. She sighed with relief. With a bit of hope, she could use their radio to call to Scott and the boys. She looked over to the ship the net was attached to and smiled. The men on the side of the ship looking at her did not smile. She looked closer at the ship and realized just what had happened. This ship was the one she had seen with the submarine. She had possibly just landed in quite the dangerous situation. 

They pulled the net over and deposited her roughly onto the deck of the ship. Two men came up beside her and jerked her to her feet. 

“What are you doing here?” A third man asked. He seemed to be the one in control, but for some reason she didn’t think he was their leader. 

“My plane crashed. I was just diving for some food,” She tried to act the innocent crash victim and smiled at them. 

“And my name is Pearl,” The man spat at her. 

“I knew a man named Pearl, though everyone called him Shorty,” Kayo grinned keeping up the act. 

“You were piloting that black plane that was watching us,” The leader growled leaning in so he was inches from Kayo’s face, “I know because we are the ones that caused you to crash.” Kayo frowned. 

“Yes, I was curious,” Kayo announced, “But I didn’t take pictures or anything if that’s what your worried about.” 

“And you think I’m going to believe you?” The man asked laughing, “Think again.” Kayo opened her mouth with a retort but the only thing that came out of it was air as he punched her in the stomach. She sagged between her captors as the man straightened up and started to walk away. “Find that plane of hers. Maybe we can salvage some if its parts.” 

“No,” She tried to yell, but it only came out as a whisper as her eyes closed and blackness consumed her. 

 

She pulled again on the plastic restraints that bound her wrists and ankles together. They were stretching, but not wanting to break. She pulled again, and was able to pull one hand out of the restraint pulling them both around to her front. She had broken the skin on one wrist and it was seeping blood, but not too badly. They were sore though, she had pulled on them quite hard. With her hands free she was able to pull out the hidden knife she kept in her boot and cut off the ties around her ankles. 

Free to move around she kept to the shadows and edged around to the other side of the cargo hold. She had noticed that the hold didn’t encompass the entire bottom of the ship. There was a door opposite from her with a lock on it. She made it to the door, and bent to inspect the lock. It was a simple padlock, so she pulled out a hairpin from her ponytail and attempted to pick it. This was something Lady Penelope had taught her some years back. With a click that seemed louder than it should have she slipped the lock off the door and opened it. 

On the other side of the door was a large machine. It was dark in the room and she couldn’t quite make out the shape or even size of it, but it felt as if it took up the entire half of the ship. She reached forward and touched the cold metal using it as a guide to find some sort of control panel. The machine was damp. She wondered if this was just a protective layer, to protect the main device from the water. Then it could also just be a hunk of junk that they are planning something else for. She had felt down the side of the machine but hadn’t found any kind of console. She was about to give up and head for the outline that remained of the door when something green blinked to life at the other end of the room. She followed the light and came upon a monitor and keyboard. The monitor was dark, and had a bright green dash blinking placidly upon it. Kayo waited for a moment, and then the dash started to move. 

 

‘Electronic Magnetic Field. Enter Frequency:’

 

“An EMF. So that’s how they made me crash. And it looks like they’re going to get someone else as well,” Kayo couldn’t help but smile. She stretched her fingers and started typing. Every entry that was plugged in remotely she attempted to change it. She wasn’t the computer genius that John was, but she could do some damage when needed. She was so involved with what she was doing that she did not even notice that someone had walked up behind her. They grabbed her head by her ponytail and slammed it into the nearby wall. All was dark once again before she had realized it. 

 

Kayo could hear talking. She kept her eyes closed and tried her best not to move even though her wrists were burning. They had bound them behind her back again, tighter than before. Slowly the words she was hearing came into sharper focus. 

“Did you figure out what it is your hacking?” A deep voiced man asked.

“Not precisely, no,” A weaker voice answered, “The code I keep coming up against is something I’ve never seen before. It’s unique and difficult to decipher.” 

“So something high tech and secretive,” The burly man almost purred, “We get ahold of that and we’ll be rich.” 

“I’ve been able to change gravity settings as well as play with the thrusters. So it must be some kind of space craft, maybe a low orbital station.” 

“Not a satellite?” 

“No, a satellite would have no need for gravity or airlocks.”

“airlocks? Are there people on board?” 

“Probably not anymore. I opened the airlocks some time ago,” She could hear the weaker voice chuckle. 

“Good job. Any way we can figure out where it is?” 

“I’m still working on that. It’s got security on top of security on top of security. I’m still locked out of the main computer, the airlocks are the closest I could get to any of the essential systems.” 

“Excellent, keep up the good work,” The burly man replied. Kayo could hear a soft thumping and assumed he was patting the weaker voiced man on the back. She could hear as he stepped away from one side of the cabin and to the other. “Now, are you satisfied with the progress we have made?” 

“Not entirely, no,” A new snobby voice announced as he shuffled in place, “I paid good money for that access code and frequency from a man within Tracy Industries. I don’t know what it controls, but my contact assured me it was something top secret. If I can get control of that, then there is nothing to stop Tracy Industries from going belly up now that Jeff Tracy is gone.” Kayo couldn’t help but jerk at the comment. Someone from within the company had sold this access code to him, but what did it control? She wasn’t aware of Tracy Industries having any projects in space at the moment.

“I don’t care why you want us to do this as long as we get our money,” The burly man growled. 

“Then make sure the next time I come you have more to show for yourselves.” 

“This is just part of our operation,” The burly man sneered, “Let me show you the EMF device. Once we figure out where this space station is, we can point this right at it and it will become junk in space.” 

“Very well, lead the way.” She could hear as two sets of footsteps left the room and a door shut. 

Slowly she cracked an eye open and looked around. There was no one else in the room except her and the man with the weak voice who still sat at a computer terminal. She pulled on her restraints a bit testing them, but they were still quite tight. She glanced around again, allowing her head to move a bit and found that they were on the bridge of the ship. She had been sat down in a chair but as far as she could tell, she was not bound to it. Again she looked around the room carefully, she would not have much time, but she had to get out of there. Quickly and quietly she stood up, they hadn’t bound her feet this time thankfully, holding the chair behind her with her arms she swung around and hit the man at the computer with the legs of the chair. His arms dropped to his side suddenly and he slid off of the chair into a pile on the floor. Kayo let the chair drop from her arms and searched quickly for something to cut her restraints with. She found a small unassuming knife laying on one of the surfaces and was able to grab it and start sawing away at the plastic tie. As she struggled to free her hands, she looked over the maps laid across the navigation table and figured out just where they were. The ship had gone quite a ways north, back to where there was an abundance of fish. She assumed they were going to fill the cargo hold so that no one would suspect the EMF generator to be down there.

Once her wrists were once again free, though very sore and bleeding, she walked over to the computer and glanced at it. The man was right, this was some awfully complicated code. She scanned down through it, and was ready to just destroy everything when she came upon something she recognized. Two letters and a number, TB5. No, Tracy Industries did not have any current projects in space, but International Rescue did and that project had been subsidized by the Tracy family company. She stared in shock, were they actually hacking Thunderbird 5? Her mind was suddenly racing, was John okay, were the Tracy’s aware that this was happening. Now more than ever she knew she had to get away and get back in contact with International Rescue. She quickly looked around for some sort of drive or disk she could copy some information onto, but there was nothing of the sort anywhere. Taking a different approach she opened an access panel and pulled out the hard drive itself. She wasn’t sure how she would get it out undamaged, but maybe the information would still be intact even if it was waterlogged. She looked out a few of the windows and saw a small speed boat tied up along side the ship. She figured that it must be the snobby voiced man’s. She took another quick look at the map and the compass so she could see which way she needed to go. She opened the door and snuck out onto the balcony. There really weren’t that many workers on the boat and she was able to climb down the back of the bridge and over the side of the ship. She shimmied her way to the speed boat and climbed down a rope ladder hanging near it. She had just landed in the boat when she noticed a man with a shaven head and full beard walk up to the edge. Quickly she ducked down under some equipment just as the man looked down. 

“Do you have enough gas to make it back?” The bearded man asked as a thinner man in a suit climbed through the railing and down the same rope ladder she had used. 

“Do you think I would come all this way without making sure I could make it back?” The man sneered at his host. 

“Just make sure the money is in my account by the end of the day tomorrow, or you won’t be seeing any more progress.” 

“Don’t you worry, it will be there, and I do expect more when I come back next week.” The skinny man made his way down and walked right to the drivers chair sitting down and starting the boat. Someone above threw down the rope that tethered it to the ship, and the speed boat pulled away quickly gaining speed and distance. 

Kayo took a deep, but quiet breath. She was away. This man, she figured, would be easy to knock out. He wasn’t paying attention to anything around him, but mumbling to himself. For now though, she would let him drive, and once they got close to land, she would be more than happy to take over. 

 

 


	7. Safe and Sound

The man was pushing the small speed boat to it’s limit bouncing Kayo around her small corner like crazy. It was all she could do not to yelp in pain as she slammed into one of the cleats the rope had been tied to. It wasn’t until Kayo could see a strip of green in the distance that she decided to make her appearance. As quietly as she could she made her way out of her hiding spot. She had spotted a wrench hanging out of a wooden box that had been stuffed under one of the seats and picked it up, apologizing to Scott as she did. He would not approve of her next action. She snuck up to the man and hit him upside the head. He veered to the right as he fell from the seat and landed with a thump on the bottom of the boat. Kayo about lost her balance as the boat took off in the unexpected direction, but grabbed the seat and pulled herself into it, taking the steering wheel and correcting their heading. She wasn’t quite sure where she was going, but any place was better than on that ship. As she got closer she was coming in contact with other boats and ships, some sailing vessels, and other fishing ships coming in for the day. She made a conscious decision to pull down her jumpsuit to her waist. No one needed to know that she was part of International Rescue. It would raise too many questions. The sun was getting low in the sky, but she knew she still had a few hours of daylight left to her. She found a small marina and brought the boat up to one of the docks, ditching it and its driver. Someone would find him eventually. Though, as she made her way down the wooden dock toward the road she could hear Scott’s voice scolding her, and she knew she couldn’t just leave him. So, as she passed by the guard shack she stopped just long enough to let the attendant on duty know that there was a guy in a speed boat that looked as if he had passed out. The guard thanked her and then pointed the way towards town. She could feel the guards eyes stay on her, so crossed her arms to cover her bloody wrists, but kept on going before he could ask her any questions. 

Town consisted of a small main street with a few touristy shops and small cafes that sold local specialties that could be found just about anywhere in the world. Golf carts puttered their way up and down the street ferrying the tourists from the closest resort that fed the town. Kayo made her way down the street looking for a small hotel or shop that wasn’t overrun with tourist, that she thought might lend her their phone. Finally, near the edge of town, was a dodgy little place that advertised paddle boarding, kayaking, and a place to sleep between the two. She wondered if they had even two rooms to offer, but it was something at least. 

“Excuse me,” She asked as she walked up to the desk, “Do you speak English?” Kayo was actively learning languages, but wasn’t sure Maldivian had ever been on her list. 

“Oh, yes, yes, Speak English,” The man behind the counter smiled,” You Kayak? Paddle Board? Yes?” 

“No,” Kayo shook her head and pointed to her wrist where her comm bracelet usually sat, “I need to call someone.” She motioned hitting a button and talking to someone but the man looked at her confused. “Can I borrow your phone?” 

“Phone, no public,” The man shook his head. 

“What if I rented a room?”

“No public.” 

“A paddle board?” 

“No public.”

“Fine, where public?” She asked finding herself slip into the man’s broken English. 

“Resort,” was his one word answer as he pointed down the road. Kayo sighed, at least at the resort she could explain her situation a bit better. Though she wasn’t entirely sure how they would react if she told them the truth. 

It took her an hour to walk the road to the closet resort, golf carts puttered back and forth, never offering her a ride, their occupants too engrossed in their own conversations and plans for the evening. When she did finally arrive there was a rush at the front desk as new guests arrived for paid time in paradise. Kayo took the moment to rest and waited for the crowd to clear up a bit. 

“Excuse me, could I possibly use your phone,” Kayo asked as she approached one of the desk clerks that looked the least busy.

“Are you a guest at the resort?” The desk clerk looked at her disapprovingly. 

“No, but if it will let me use the phone, I’ll rent a room,” Kayo sighed tired of the run around. 

“I’m afraid that we are booked for the night,” The clerk replied and then turned to deal with his work. 

“Look, my plane went down a ways off, I’m not even sure which island this is, and I need to contact my,” She paused for a moment, but then continued on, “family. I’m sure they’re worried.” 

“I’m sorry, that is our policy. If what you say is true, you should go to the local authorities,” the clerk then left, ending the conversation. Kayo turned around, quite frustrated. She didn’t want to get the authorities involved, that guard was sure to figure out that the man in the boat hadn’t just passed out, but had been knocked out, and they were sure to be looking for her, she was’t exactly inconspicuous in her blue jumpsuit. 

“Excuse me, miss,” An old lady ambled up to Kayo and laid a fragile looking hand on Kayo’s wrist. Kayo jumped at the light touch that seemed to cause her wrist to burn even more, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to over hear, but if you need to call your family you are more than welcome to use my phone. It doesn’t have video capabilities, but it is something yes?” 

“Yes, it is. Thank you very much,” Kayo beamed down at the old woman and then turned to the desk clerk that had once again reappeared, “Excuse me, this lady is a guest of your resort correct?”

“Yes, Mrs. Baker is a valued guest here.” The clerk replied frowning at her.

“Then I would like to pay for her room tonight. Kansas State Bank, account number 00388746, access code 5837.” It was a secure account Jeff had set up for use in emergencies only, Kayo didn’t know if any of the others had ever used it, but this was her first time, and she hoped it worked okay. 

“Is there a name on the account?” The clerk asked as he finished writing down the numbers.

“No, I’ve given you what you need. You can go ahead and charge it while I borrow her phone,” Kayo took Mrs. Baker’s phone and walked a few steps away. She dialed in the number for the public line on Tracy Island. The phone wasn’t used much, but for those old friends that sometimes wanted to reconnect with the family from time to time. The phone rang once and then beeped a few times before a message came across that the call could not be connected. Frowning, she punched in another number, and waited as the phone rang in her ear. 

“Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward’s line, How may I help you?” It was Parker’s voice and Kayo couldn’t help but smile. 

“Parker, it’s me, Kayo. I need to talk with Lady Penelope.” 

“Miss Kayo, my it is good to hear from you. We have been quite worried.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Kayo cringed knowing that Scott was going to be giving her a lecture as soon as she got back, “I tried to call… home, but the line couldn’t be connected.” 

“Yes, we have been trying to call the… umm… family as well,” Parker replied trying to keep the descriptions vague since they were on public lines and not the secure lines of International Rescue, “We were just packing up to go see if everything was okay.” 

“Look, I’ve umm.. crashed my plane. Could you come by and pick me up on your way?” 

“Parker, who is that,” Kayo could hear Lady Penelope in the background as parker responded to her.

“It’s Miss Kayo. She’s crashed her plane and needs a ride.” 

“Well, of course, find out where she is. We’ll be there shortly.” 

“I’m just outside of…” Kayo turned to look at the lady who mouthed the name of the small town, “Jahada?”

“Jagaha, perfect,” She could hear Lady Penelope confirm, “The family has a summer home near there. Make your way to the local airport, I’ll call them to let them know you’re coming and to expect us.” 

“Thank you, Lady Penelope.” 

“Just don’t get into any more trouble alright?” 

“I’ll try not to,” Kayo couldn’t help but smile.

“I suppose that will have to do. See you in a bit,” And with that the line was closed. Kayo turned back and handed the phone back to Mrs. Baker and thanked her again for her generosity. 

“Wait a moment, miss,” Mrs. Baker stopped Kayo as she started to walk out of the lobby, “You need to get to the airport if I heard correctly. Sorry, I am bad at over hearing things. Get’s me into trouble sometimes.” Kayo couldn’t help but smile at the old woman. “Tom,” She turned to the desk clerk that had been rude to Kayo, “Will you arrange a boat for the young lady. Just charge it to my room. And be sure to change the account number back after you’ve charged her account for the night.” 

“You don’t need to do that,” Kayo objected, though to be honest, she didn’t want to have to return to the town in case there was an issue with how she had arrived. 

“It is my pleasure. Offering someone in need a way to call their family should be a free charge regardless of where they are. Since you so kindly paid for my room tonight, I’ll pay to get you to the airport so you can go home. Plus, I just enjoy helping people,” She leaned in a bit and pulled Kayo down to whisper in her ear chuckling as she admitted, “Sometimes I pretend that I’m part of International Rescue.” Kayo couldn’t help but smile and wished she could let her know that she was in fact helping the organization out tremendously, but with so many things unknown at the moment, keeping her membership in the secret organization quiet was of great importance.

“Then I accept your help, my hero,” Kayo took Mrs. Baker’s hand and bowed to it like Lady Penelope had taught her. 

“Oh my, you do know how to flatter a lady,” She giggled like a little girl, her eyes twinkling, “Come now, I’ll take you down to the docks.” 

Kayo took her arm and allowed herself to be led down to the resort’s docks, listening to the lady chat about the guests that have stayed there, the resort itself, and the employees, apologizing for Tom’s behavior because he was always a little rude at this time of day because of the influx of guests. Kayo found out that Mrs. Baker was at the resort almost more than she was at her own home in England, the weather there just wasn’t good for her joints anymore. For the moment, Kayo felt safe and thought everything would be okay. Mrs. Baker decided to go with Kayo to the airport, to make sure she got there safely. Even once the boat had pulled up next to the dock, Mrs. Baker insisted on walking Kayo to the terminal.

“I’ll make sure they treat you properly,” Mrs Baker assured her, patting the hand that she had tucked into her elbow, “How long did you say it would take for your family to arrive?” 

“Actually it’s a friend of the family that’s coming. The line home seems to be having some issues, so she’s agreed to pick me up.” 

“I see, even in this day and age things still break down. I can remember when I was young our lights would go out every time a storm came through, so annoying. But at the same time I quite enjoyed some of those blackouts,” She smiled up at Kayo, “Now, I apologize again, but did I hear right? You called your friend, Lady Penelope?” 

“Umm.. Yes,” Kayo was hesitant to give any more information that may lead the conversation to some dangerous ground. 

“As in Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward?” 

“Yes, do you know her,” Kayo asked a little surprised. 

“I do. I’ve been friends with her mother for many years. She’s the one that first brought me to the Maldives. Her daughter is quite the mysterious young woman.”

“Mysterious? What do you mean,” Kayo asked laughing nervously.

“Oh she’s out in public all the time, and represents her family well, but I just get the feeling, from the way her mother talks, that she has other responsibilities. I have no idea what those could be, maybe she’s out in the field helping those more unfortunate than ourselves, but she does have all the time in the world on her hands,” Mrs. Baker chuckled and Kayo sighed. They arrived at the main terminal and instead of walking up to the small ticket counter Mrs. Baker led Kayo to an administration office. The woman at the desk inside the door seemed to know her right away.

“Mrs. Baker, are you leaving so soon?” 

“No, no, not me dear, I’m just accompanying my friend here. Penelope should have called, I believe.” 

“Yes, she has. Is this the young lady she is picking up then. I’ll send word her way that she has arrived safely,” The woman smiled warmly at the two, “You’re welcome to stay here if you’d like. I believe her ETA is in about two hours.” 

“I’ll take her up to the lounge,” Mrs. Baker announced, “Get a nip to eat and wait with her.”

“Oh, you don’t need to do that, you’ve been such a huge help already,” Kayo smiled taking her arm back. 

“I will not take no for an answer,” Mrs Baker replied tucking Kayo’s hand back into her arm, “Come now. The lounge is this way.” 

Kayo didn’t have much of a choice and allowed herself to be dragged through the small terminal up a flight of stairs and past a security check point to a private lounge on the second floor. The lounge was mostly empty with the exception of a couple near the windows watching the planes and a couple of men in business suits at the bar. Mrs. Baker pulled Kayo to the far corner to a small grouping of plush chairs. She sat Kayo down in one of the chairs and then bustled over to the bar. Kayo wanted to tell her not to worry so much about her, but she had already been told off and decided not to argue. That and she was starting to get very sleepy. It had been a long difficult day. Mrs. Baker reappeared next to her with a small tray that she laid down on the round table that sat in the middle of the cluster of chairs. She poured some tea into a cup with lemon and added some honey to it. 

“I don’t like honey in my tea,” Kayo tried to lean forward to pour her own cup, but Mrs. Baker pushed her back in her chair and handed her the cup she had just poured. 

“You may not like it, but you need it from the looks of you,” She shook her head at Kayo and then disappeared again. Kayo frowned, she didn’t think she looked that bad, did she? Mrs. Baker reappeared with a small white box and pulled one of the other chairs up next to Kayo. Kayo dimly thought that she was a strong old lady for sure. Kayo obediently sipped at the hot tea and even with the honey it tasted good. She hadn’t realized just how long it had been since she had had something proper to drink. Before she had realized it, she had drunk the entire cup. Nodding happily Mrs. Baker took the cup from her and replaced it with a small sandwich. She then took Kayo’s other hand and inspected her wrists.

“No, I’m fine,” Kayo jumped pulling her hand away. 

“Calm down,” The woman cooed as she reached out and tugged her hand back to where she could work on it. She pulled out some alcohol and dabbed at the rough broken skin trying to clean it up a bit and making Kayo hiss in pain. She then sprayed some antiseptic all the way around before wrapping it neatly in a bandage, “Now eat up,” She commanded giving Kayo a look that she knew no one had ever tried to argue with. Kayo obediently ate the sandwich in a few bites and once she was done chewing Mrs. Baker took her other hand and applied the same treatment. “I was a nurse when I was younger,” She explained as she finished bandaging Kayo’s other wrist, “Married a doctor. He was of the aristocracy and it was expected of me to stop working and have children. Never happened for us. I continued to work, though, secretly mind you.”

“How did you work secretly?” Kayo asked as another sandwich was pressed into her hand.” 

“Vacation,” She beamed, “We would travel all over the world, and no matter where we were I would find a local charity hospital and volunteer my time. The people in our circles would never think of going to them, so I was never found out.” Kayo ate her sandwich as she listened to Mrs. Baker tell her stories about her younger days and the people she took care of. She couldn’t help but think that it was people like that that had kept the world from completely falling apart during the last major conflict. 

Kayo tried to stay awake, but the room was cool, the chair was comfortable, and Mrs. Baker made her feel absolutely safe. Soon enough her eyes had drifted closed and she slept. 

 

“Wake her up, Parker,” Lady Penelope’s voice was sharp and a little stressed. 

“Must you, Penelope, dear? Couldn’t you wait till tomorrow to leave? She looks like she’s had one horrible day,” Mrs. Baker pleaded. Kayo could feel a shadow over her and stirred a little.

“Yes, but we still haven’t heard from her family, and I am getting quite worried.” 

“How long as it been?” Mrs. Baker asked curiosity in her voice. 

“Too Long,” Lady Penelope replied frowning at Mrs. Baker. A sweet woman indeed, but horribly nosey.

“I’m sure the boys are fine,” Parker announced as he leaned over to shake Kayo awake. 

“The guys,” Kayo exclaimed sitting up suddenly, her and Parker’s heads colliding. 

“For goodness sake,” Lady Penelope sighed as the two doubled over in pain, “We do not have time for these hijinks.” 

“No, we don’t,” Kayo agreed as she forced herself to her feet, stumbling a bit. She turned to Mrs. Baker and pulled her into a hug, “Thank you for staying with me.” 

“It was my pleasure, my dear,” Mrs. Baker smiled and squeezed her back, “Penelope, say hello to your mother for me, will you?” 

“Of course Mrs. Baker. And thank you for taking care of Kayo.” 

“No trouble at all, none at all.” They waved goodby and headed toward one of the private hangers. 

“How long will it take us to get to the island?” 

“In FAB1 almost twelve hours,” Penelope frowned as she led the way to her precious car. 

“Isn’t there anyway of going faster?” 

“I’m afraid not. We’ll be going at top speed as it is,” Parker answered as he skipped forward to open the door for the two ladies. Kayo frowned as she stepped into the luxurious leather interior of FAB1. What could be causing this black out from the island, and Thunderbird 5. Though, she thought she might know about Thunderbird 5, but she didn’t want to voice her concerns until she had more proof. It was near on night when FAB1 took off from the small airport in the Maldives and headed east. The last glow of light disappeared behind the horizon behind them. 

 

“Lady Penelope,” Kayo turned toward her neighbor as they flew deeper into the night. 

“Yes?” 

“About Mrs. Baker. I have the feeling there was more to her than what she let on.” 

“Did you now,” Penelope smiled and laughed at the confused look on Kayo’s tired face, “She is quite the Mysterious woman.” 

“That’s what she said about you,” Kayo frowned. 

“That’s our little nick name for each other. Mind you nobody else in either of our families know, but she was also in the espionage service when she was younger.” 

“The same you were in before International Rescue?” 

“Precisely. She of course knows about International Rescue, and my part in it. You can’t pull a fast one on her, trust me, I tried.” 

“Then did she know that I was also?” 

“Possibly, even though you hid your badge.” 

“Precautionary measure,” Kayo shrugged. 

“Understandable. An International Rescue member suddenly needing to call the Tracy family might raise some questions,” Penelope smiled. 

“Do you think they’re alright,” Kayo asked glancing out of the window into the darkness around them. 

“I don’t know. We shall see when we get there, and no sooner,” Penelope announced matter a factly, “Get some sleep Kayo. You’ve had a long day I’m sure, and I’ll wake you as soon as we arrive.” Kayo didn’t argue, but leaned back in the seat with her head against the window watching the darkness outside until her heavy eyes closed and once again she drifted off. 

 

Just as Penelope had said, it had been almost twelve hours when Parker announced a visual on the island. 

“Kayo, It’s time to wake up,” Lady Penelope gently rocked the young lady next to her. 

“Huh?” Kayo mumbled as she slowly became aware of where she was, “Oh! Can you see the island, is it…. is it still there?” 

“Yes, it doesn’t look like there is any damage,” Parker started but then paused as he leaned forward a little, “Wait, it does look like the Island’s comms array is gone.” 

“That would explain why we couldn’t get in touch with them,” Penelope reasoned. Kayo took a deep breath before she voiced the question in her head.

“But how? The comms array is on the highest peak.” 

“Kayo, It doesn’t do us good to worry about what we don’t know,” Lady Penelope tried to reason with the frantic girl, “Yes, it could be a clue to something more serious, or it could be a simple malfunction that Brains is trying to fix.” 

“Uh, M’lady,” Parker coughed to clear his throat that was suddenly tight.

“What is it Parker?” 

“I think you and Miss Kayo should look left,” His voice was soft and hesitant as he banked the car to give the two in the back seat a better look. Kayo gasped as her hands grabbed Penelope’s arm and Penelope mouthed an ‘oh my’. Thunderbird 3 was sitting with her nose wedged between two jagged rocky peaks on one of the smaller islands that surrounded the larger one on which the Tracy’s lived. Parker brought FAB1 down father so that they could have a look. The sides of the spaceship were scraped and bent where they had been forced between the rocks, the cargo bay lay gapping open, the pod inside still securely locked in place, but they could see water in the cargo bay, and a few birds were starting to make themselves at home. There was a large blackened area of the hull were it was obvious a fire had broken out, it had been a hot one, but had been put out before too much damage had occurred. 

“You don’t think anyone’s still in there do you?” Kayo asked as Parker took them higher so that he could adjust his angle for approach on the runway. 

“The cargo bay is open, I imagine they did that to get to whoever was inside,” Penelope whispered still in shock herself. 

“Alan,” Kayo breathed, fear settling back into her bones. Penelope reached over and pulled Kayo into a half hug, she knew just how important those boys were for her.

“I’m sure he’s fine. We would have heard something on the news if something horrible had happened,” She was trying to reassure Kayo, but knew she was also trying to keep her own mind from running amok with possible scenarios, “Brains has always put safety first. Alan can survive a landing like that, I’m sure of it.” 

“M’lady,” Parker announced again, his voice shaking this time. 

“Yes, Parker, why haven’t we landed yet?” 

“The right side, if you would,” He once again banked so that they could get a better view of what was troubling Parker. 

“No,” Kayo almost whimpered. 

“Parker land us now,” Penelope ordered. They had seen the deviation on the runway. What was left of Thunderbird Shadow was laying at the end, head down in the water, the remaining wing sticking out, and the grappling cables still attached. The trees that normally fell back upon Thunderbird 2’s approach had mostly made it down in their normal positions, but a few had been caught and forced to their sides, pulling up the metal platforms they rested on. Thunderbird 2 was sitting quietly it’s side flush with the hanger door, a large ugly scratch down the side and one thruster obviously damaged. 

Parker maneuvered FAB1 down to a small beach and had barely landed when Kayo burst out of it and up the stairs that lead to the house. She ran past the pool and the chair she had sat in just three days ago watching Gordon and Alan. She shook her head and ran into the Kitchen yelling.

“ALAN! SCOTT! VIRGLE! GORDON!!” She stopped in the middle of the room and looked around. It was empty and quiet. She mounted the stairs and took three huge leaps up into the lounge and looked around, “IS ANYONE HERE???? BRAINS? GRANDMA!” 


	8. Homecoming

Brains had remained in the lounge as the five brothers departed on their separate missions. As was protocol on any mission he stayed in contact with Thunderbird 3 while Grandma Tracy talked to Thunderbird 2. However, at almost the same time they had lost contact with both of them. He didn’t like being in the dark like that, not knowing what was going on, so he buried himself in his computer trying to find some sort of way to reestablish contact with Thunderbird 5. 

Brains was starting to get antsy after two hours had passed. The time it would take Thunderbird 3 to reach Thunderbird 5 and return to earth was about two hours, but they had not seen or heard from them at all. Then the time it should have taken Thunderbird 2 to do a search, pickup Kayo, and return, was also around the two hour mark as well. They should all be arriving home any time now. 

Three hours had passed and Brains knew something had gone wrong. Even taking into consideration that Thunderbird 3 was unable to dock with Thunderbird 5, three hours was plenty of time. Scott and Gordon should have found Kayo by now, even if her tracker had been disabled somehow, and be on their way home.

Another half hour passed and he found himself standing on the deck looking up into the bright blue sky. Even if John had been unconscious because of the erratic movements of his bird, three and a half hours was far to long for it to be taking them.  Even if they had to tow Thunderbird S back, it shouldn’t have slowed them down that much.

Brains looked back into the lounge to where Grandma Tracy was sitting, watching the news for any reports that may involve her grandsons. He was glad that nothing had been reported, but at the same time that would have at least given them some answers. It was almost another half-hour later, while Brains was pacing the length of the lounge, that the proximity alarms on the island started to go off. Brains ran to his computer and brought up island stats, Grandma Tracy coming up behind him. 

“It’s T…thunderbird 3, she’s approaching the island,” Brains reported. 

“Oh, thank goodness,” Grandma Tracy sighed.

“N..no, this is not good,” Brains frowned as he looked at the numbers that were flashing on the screen.

“What do you mean? Brains, talk to me,” Grandma Tracy ordered as she shook his shoulder slightly.

“She’s coming in at the wrong angle, too deep, and she’s going way to fast,” Brains reported as he typed away at the display, “Thunderbird 3, come in. You need to adjust your heading and speed, Thunderbird 3 can you hear me?” There was nothing on the comms and Grandma Tracy walked to the deck and looked up into the sky. 

“I can see her Brains,” She called out to him. Brains tore himself away from the screen, there was nothing he could do there unless they could hear him, and from what he could tell they couldn’t. “Oh dear,” Grandma Tracy gasped as Brains joined her, “She’s on fire, Brains.” Brains looked up and a large black column of smoke was trailing after the red rocket. Brains stepped father out onto the deck so he could get a better look at her angle and decent. Quickly he figured out just where she was landing, and grabbed Grandma Tracy’s hand pulling her back into the house and down into the depths of the building. “Where are we going?” She asked as she was dragged farther down past, the silos to a part of the base she had never been to.” 

“M…Mr. Tracy knew that there was a chance that one of the birds might have to crash land in the ocean. So, he p…prepared equipment just for that scenario.” 

“My son, always prepared,” Grandma Tracy smiled a little. Brains led her to a hidden dock on the far side of the island, along side it sat two small ships loaded down with all kinds of equipment. 

“We’ve only used them a couple of times, in the beginning when we were still testing the birds,” Brains explained as he helped her onboard. They had just reached the bridge of the ship when a thunderous crash rang throughout the cave. 

“What was that?” Grandma asked fear in her eyes. 

“I expect it was the communications tower,” Brains replied as he started the ship up. They were underway in moments and another thunderous sound echoed throughout the air around them. 

“And that?” 

“A…as long as it doesn’t sound like an explosion and burning we should be okay.” The boat sped around the island and after a minute or two came into sight of the red rocket that had crashed between two small peaks that jutted out of one of the smaller islands. She was still smoking badly, but the fire seemed to be contained and not spreading. He had hoped that the landing would have put it out, but they were not that lucky.

Brains pulled the ship up next to the rocket and made his way to the top of a large machine that sat in the middle of the ship. It looked like a cannon of some sort, and Grandma Tracy watched as Brains aimed it at the pluming smoke and shot a foamy substance from it. She understood what he was doing, he was extinguishing the fire. Once he was sure the fire was out he made his way back down to the deck and into another small cabin at the other end of the boat. He returned with a stretcher tucked under his arm. Meeting Grandma Tracy at the gangplank he hit the button that extended it to the ground. They made their way to the rocket and Brains entered the emergency code on the access panel on the cargo bay door. The door hissed and slid smoothly open allowing the two to climb into her belly. 

“Alan,” Grandma Tracy exclaimed as she saw her youngest grandson strapped to the wall of his own bird, still unconscious.

“We’re quite l…lucky,” Brains mused as he took in the young pilots situation. 

“How is this lucky?” 

“The rocket could have landed so that he was hanging from the ceiling,” Brains pointed out. Grandma Tracy couldn’t help but agree with that logic, and helped Brains to disconnect the AED pads. Brains quickly felt for a pulse, and was satisfied when he found it. Deciding to use the stretcher from the bird, Brains unlatched it from the wall, but it took both of them to keep it from falling to the floor. Brains activated the hover function and left Alan with his Grandmother’s smothering. 

He made his way into the cockpit and found Virgil in the pilot’s seat, John in the co-pilots. This caused some confusion for Brains. Alan and John were the astronauts, if anyone was going to pilot Thunderbird 3, it would be one of them, not Virgil. He quickly made his way to the two young men and checked their pulses. Both were strong, but they were both unconscious. He noticed Virgil cradling his left hand and picked it up gently. Virgil twitched at the movement, and Brains was sure that he had broken it. He then lifted his eyelids to see if they would react to the light. They did and Brains sighed in relief. Hopefully the extent of his injuries were to his hand, and the results of extreme space sickness. He then turned to John. His face was black and blue, and blood had run down it in several places. But the blood was dried, it wasn’t new, so the wounds were probably from his tumble aboard the space station. He noticed that John was cradling his right hand, and picked it up. He could feel the disconnection of the bones near his wrist and knew it had been broken. He noticed that John was also holding his other arm a little strangely. Brains walked to the other side of the seat and moved his arm a bit, the muscles in his shoulder tensed up, but the astronaut did not even twitch. Brains felt around his shoulder and could feel the collar bone move under his fingers. That would make moving him a bit more difficult. He then lifted his eyelids and frowned when the pupils remained dilated.

“Brains,” Grandma Tracy’s voice echoed through the hatch, “Can I come up there?” She was hesitant, afraid of what she would see herself. 

“Yes, please, and bring a stretcher with you,” Brains called back, “I’ll need your help moving them.” Grandma Tracy made her way into the cockpit and frowned upon seeing the two in their seats unconscious. Brains had made his way back to Virgil and slid back the seat. “I’ll g…get his torso, if you would get his feet,” Brains instructed. Grandma Tracy jumped forward and as soon as Brains had pulled Virgil half way onto the stretcher she reached down and lifted his feet. Once upon it, Brains strapped him in, making sure to keep his hand in a safe place. He noticed then, the black round device that was attached to Virgil’s belt. He pulled it free and laid it on the stretcher next to him. “What is that,” Grandma Tracy asked looking at the strange devise. 

“Thunderbird 5’s memory core. I’m u…unsure as to why they have it though,” Brains shook his head, making note that he would look into it later, and then took him back to the cargo bay next to his younger brother. When he returned to the cockpit, Grandma Tracy was spitting into a tissue she always seemed to have on her and was wiping John’s face. Brains couldn’t help but feel sorry for the older woman, she had already seen her husband and son die before her, he was afraid it would do her great harm if one of her grandsons went too. 

Brains cleared his throat and Grandma Tracy looked up, a small smile on her lips, “They haven’t let me do that in years. Mind you, they never liked it then either.” She stashed the tissue away and helped Brains move John onto the other stretcher that had been attached the the hull. Once secured as best he could, they made their way, one by one, back to the ship. Brains didn’t think to close the cargo bay, he was too worried about the boys and wanted to get them back to the island as fast as possible. 

It had taken the two over an hour to get the three injured pilots back to the island and to the infirmary. It was time, now, to find out the extent of their injuries. Brains moved to John first, figuring he had had his injuries the longest of the three. He cut off his spacesuit and saw that he had AED patches on him as well. Brains pulled the patches off with a quick jerk as Grandma Tracy approached with a washcloth and basin of warm water. She went to work cleaning him up as Brains used the portable x-ray machine to see the damage to his arms. Both the break in his wrist and his collar bone were clean. He had bruises all over his torso, and Brains x-rayed his chest to find two broken ribs, and several cracked ones. He pulled out the heart monitor, whoever had put the AED patches on him did it for a reason, and placed the patches on his chest. The monitor beeped to life in a steady normal rhythm. He then scanned his arm and started printing out an orange brace for it. These 3D printed braces were a much better solution than the old standby of casting the broken bones, though that was still done on occasion. The brace was printed in a honeycomb structure that only touched his skin at certain points which would help support the bone while it was healing. This allowed the skin to breath and was more comfortable for the patient. He couldn’t use the brace on his ribs or his collar bone, so that was done the old fashioned way. With Grandma Tracy’s help, he wrapped John’s chest to keep the bones as stationary as he could, and then slung his other arm into a tight sling to keep it stationary as well. Brains then turned to his head. He had a few abrasion, and bumps as well as bruising along one cheekbone and a split lip. He opened up one of his eyes flashing a small light in and out of it, but the pupil still did not respond. That was not a good sign. Brains pulled out two IV bags from the medicine cabinet and hung them next to the heart monitor. One was basic fluids, they had been gone a long while and probably needed some. The other was a newer medicine, only on the market for five years, but it had been proven to counteract some of the effects of a concussion. Hoping he wasn’t too late in administering it, he inserted the IV into the crook of John’s elbow and started the drip. Finally he helped Grandma Tracy pull on a clean pair of pants, leaving him shirtless because of the contraption on his shoulder.

Next in line was Alan. He went to work cutting off his spacesuit, pulling off the AED pads as he went. He was careful as he reached Alan’s left hand, having noticed that it was at a strange angle, and wasn’t surprised when he saw about two inches of bone sticking out of it. The bone had stopped the bleeding, but he needed to get it set as soon as he could. He took a quick x-ray, the bone hadn’t broken cleanly, but he thought he could get it back without having to do any emergency surgery. Brains had to beg Grandma Tracy to help. She had retreated away at seeing the injury, but slowly approached keeping her eyes on the wall behind Alan’s bed. He had her hold his elbow as tightly as she could, while he pulled on the other end of the arm. Slowly, the bone retreated behind the skin and muscle and popped back into place. Brains placed a quick splint on the arm so he could take another x-ray, the picture came back good, he had done it. he scanned the arm to make a brace for him, red of course. He cleaned up the entry wound and then applied a glue like substance to keep it closed and to protect it from germs. Brains then turned to the oddity that was the duct tape around his waist. Using a pair of scissors he cut the tape and started to pull it away. Grandma Tracy yelped as the skin started to peel back and fresh blood started to ooze from his abdominal wound. Brains grabbed a large square of gauze and held the skin down as he pulled his suit away and dabbed at the fresh blood. The cut wasn’t deep but it had gotten quite dirty either from what had cut it, or the duct tape he wasn’t sure. Once the tape had been removed, he worked on cleaning the wound. He wasn’t sure he had gotten it all, so instead of gluing it like he did his arm, he left it open and bandaged it with some gauze. Once he was sure there was no infection, he would close it more securely. Once the worst was taken care of, they finished taking off the rest of his spacesuit. Brains checked his eyes, they dilated fine, and hooked a heart monitor up to him as well as some IV fluids while Grandma Tracy finished cleaning him up and redressing him in some cotton pants and a t-shirt. 

Finally it was Virgil’s turn. Brains immediately cut off the left arm of his suit taking pains not to move his hand too much. He then took a quick x-ray to determine the extent of the injury and stood studying it for a moment while Grandma Tracy continued to cut off the rest of his uniform. Luckily he hadn’t broken any of his finger, it had been the bones in the hand itself that had broken. Unfortunately, there was no easy way of splinting the bones. He decided that another 3D cast, green, was the only answer, altered so that it would hold the hand as straight as possible, keeping pressure on the palm so that the bones wouldn’t move around too much. He looked over the rest of Virgil, no bruises or other cuts that he could find. He checked his eyes, and they were a little slow to dilate and retract, but he had no obvious head injury. Brains figured it was because of the sever dehydration from throwing up, or dry heaving, which could cause some brain issues if done over an extended period of time. He checked in Virgil’s mouth and did find some blood mixed with the saliva. He set him up with a bag of fluids and after inserting the needle set the drip at a little faster rate than his brothers. He went ahead and pulled out another heart monitor just in case and set him up. The room was starting to sound like a confused orchestra, so Brains silenced the monitors before they drove him crazy. They finished up with Virgil dressing him like his brother in a t-shirt and cotton pants. 

With those three taken care of, Brains tried once again to contact Thunderbird 2 only to remember upon his failure that the communications antenna was currently laying somewhere in the jungle. He looked down at his watch, it was nearing five o’clock and there had been no word from Scott or Gordon, let alone any further message from Kayo. He realized now, that he should have contacted Lady Penelope at some point that day, but it was now impossible to do, so he put it out of his mind. He sat and watched the lines on the heart monitors as they went up and down in rhythm, and then took a second look at Alan’s. His heart was beating strong and had a good rhythm, only every now and then it would stutter for a moment before returning back to normal. He walked over to the young man’s bed and took his wrist in his own, feeling the pulse for himself. Yes, it was there, it happened once every couple of minutes. He decided to fully look over the boy again and this time found something he had missed. Two of his fingers on his left hand had black burn spots on them. Nothing large, just two small circles on his forefinger and thumb. Brains mused on this for a moment and wondered if it had been an electrical shock that had done the damage. Their spacesuits were made to protect them from minor shocks, but if it had been a major one, that might explain the odd twitter in his heart. 

Making a mental note to keep an extra eye on his monitor, Brains finally turned his attention to the black cylinder Virgil had been carrying. They were not to ever remove the memory core from Thunderbird 5 unless she had been damaged beyond repair. Even then, it would only be removed once it had been deemed safe to do so. So, why was it here now. 

“Max,” Brains called. Max had been sitting just outside of the infirmary having been told not to enter. The last thing Brains needed was for him to be under foot. Upon hearing his name Max zoomed in and waited for his instructions, “Do you have an extra connection cable?” Max nodded and then pulled out the cable from his rear compartment. “Thanks.” Brains plugged the cable into his tablet and then turned back to Max having just thought of an idea, “I should have plans in the database for a simple communications antenna.” Max beeped and squealed a little before displaying the schematics to Brains. “Yes, that’s the one. Do you think you could build it? The supplies should be in the repair shop.” The little robot bounced on its wheels and sped out of the room. Brains turned back to the memory core and slid back an access panel on the back end of it and plugged the cord in. 

“JOHN TRACY! YOU LIED! YOU LIED TO ME!!” The voice echoed throughout the entire building as both Brains and Grandma Tracy covered their ears, and if she could she would have covered the boys’ as well. “YOU TOLD ME I WOULD ONLY BE IN THERE FOR A LITTLE WHILE! IT HAS BEEN ALMOST SIX HOURS!!!” 

“EOS,” Brains called to the AI as she continued to yell at John who laid unresponsive in his bed. 

“Brains?” EOS asked as a red circle appeared on Brains’ tablet. 

“Yes,” Brains confirmed. 

“Where is that bastard!” She started to scream again, letting out an almighty tantrum at being sealed into the black box.

“A…access the security cameras,” Brains instructed giving her full reign of the house’s computers, “He’s in the infirmary.” There was a moment of silence, and then the small whirl of the motor in the camera that overlooked the room. 

“What is wrong? Why is he sleeping? Why is he wrapped up like that,” EOS asked, her red circle turning varying shades worry. 

“He’s been injured,” Brains explained, “He broke some bones, and hit his head quite a few times.” 

“You must wake him up now,” EOS commanded.

“I…I can’t. His body needs time to heal. He will wake up when he is able to.” 

“That is not satisfactory,” EOS’ ring started to turn red again. 

“Believe me EOS,” Grandma Tracy stood and looked up at the camera in the room, “If I could, I would wake every one of them so that I knew they were going to be okay.” 

“Virgil and Alan,” EOS observed, “They became like this, how?” 

“We don’t know,” Grandma Tracy sighed, “They went up to get John, and came back like this.” 

“When I get my hands on those hackers,” EOS fumed. 

“I…I’m afraid there is nothing we can do at the moment,” Brains frowned at the screen before him, “Our communications are out. Max is trying to build a small antenna…” 

“Yes, I see the bumbling fool,” EOS sneered. 

“He is doing the best he can. I’m sure he would appreciate some help,” Brains suggested, “He is only a child as well.” 

“I will see what I can do. The sooner we get communications back, the sooner I can find those hackers.” Brains didn’t think that was a good idea, but wasn’t sure arguing with the AI would be all that productive either. He just hoped John would wake up before she went too crazy and was able to reel her in. 

 

They stayed in the infirmary waiting. Brains kept an eye on their monitors, and occasionally checked their vitals. Grandma Tracy took turns at each bedside, holding their uninjured hands and stroking their cheeks, combing her fingers through their hair, and trying not to cry too much. EOS would occasionally make an appearance, asking if John had woken up yet, and annoyed when the answer continued to be no. Brains went down to the repair room to see how Max was doing. The place had been trashed, but he had gotten the antenna about half done. He found that EOS actually was helping the robot in his task, Brains had been afraid that she might try and bully him or yell at him, but they seemed to get along quite well, so he left them to it. 

He returned to the infirmary and sat back down at the desk at one end of the room, when the proximity alarms started to blare again. 

“There is a craft approaching,” EOS exclaimed over the noise of the alarms. 

“Can you see it?” Brains asked, and a picture appeared on a nearby monitor from one of the security cameras outside. It was Thunderbird 2. Brains exhaled a sigh of relief, but then quickly inhaled it again as the situation started to unfold. 

“Whoever is piloting it is doing a bad job,” EOS observed as the plane veered one way and then was brought back on course. 

“They’ve been gone a long time, do you suppose something has happened to them as well,” Grandma Tracy asked as she walked up behind Brains to watch the feed. Brains didn’t answer her, he was chanting something under his breath as he watched the behemoth try to land.

“Drop your load,” he mumbled over and over, and then flinched as Thunderbird S was caught on the end of the runway. The cables were finally cut and the nose of the bird dove toward the pavement. Brains ran from the infirmary with Grandma Tracy on his heels. They were not far from the silos, and could hear the bang as the bird slammed into the hanger door. Brains made his way out a small side door onto the runway and looked up at the plane before him. There was no smoke, or visible fire, but he could see the damaged thruster above him. He ran to a side hatch near her belly and entered in the access code. The door slid open and Brains jumped in, grabbing the nearby ladder and climbing. He made his way up to the cockpit and threw the door open. He couldn’t see who was in the pilot seat right away, and made his way over, frowning when he saw the blond head slouched over the steering wheel. 

Brains carefully pulled Gordon back against his seat and felt for a pulse, it was there, and strong, and his breathing was regular, only out of his mouth. He looked up at his face and saw that his nose was swollen, and bruises were starting to blossom under his eyes. Grandma Tracy finally arrived and approached with caution. She gasped as she caught sight of Gordon and had to wipe her eyes. 

“Go down to the m…med bay and get a stretcher,” Brains instructed. Grandma Tracy paused for a moment before nodding and disappearing back down the ladder. Brains reached over to the control panel and forced the legs of the beast to expand just enough to make clearance for the access elevator to work. The round platform in the middle of the cockpit jerked and then slowly moved down. A moment later, it returned with Grandma Tracy and a hovering stretcher.

“I found Scott. He’s strapped in a stretcher in the med bay,” Grandma Tracy informed Brains. 

“What about Kayo?” 

“No sign of her,” Grandma shook her head. She moved the stretcher over to Brains and he pulled back the seat to get a better hand on the young Tracy. Grandma Tracy moved to the other side to get his feet, and together they got him onto the stretcher. “Brains, his hand,” She lifted the hand which was wrapped in a blood soaked bandage. 

“d…d…damn,” Brains swore. Grandma Tracy raised her eyebrows, but did not scold the young man. She was worried too. They took the platform down to the med-bay and loaded Scott onto it as well, taking them to join their brothers. 

Now it was time to take care of the last two Tracy’s. Brains was worried about Gordon’s hand first off, and cut the red soaked bandage off, and then using the scissors to cut his glove off as well. He had sliced his hand open along the palm, the tissue around the jagged cut red and tender. He feared it was starting to get infected and used some alcohol to clean it out, this caused Gordon to groan and stir a little. Both Brains and Grandma Tracy paused to see if he would wake, but after a moment he settled back down. Brains applied an antibacterial solution to the wound and wrapped it up again in a clean bandage. Like Alan’s wound, he would leave it open for a bit to make sure the infection was gone before securing better. He then turned to Gordon’s head as Grandma Tracy went to work cutting him out of his wetsuit. His nose had been set, and there wasn’t much left he could do about it except to splint it so it wouldn’t slip back out of place. He taped the splint down and then moved to a bandage that had been applied to his forehead. He pulled the bandage off, and saw that he had cut his forehead a bit. The cut seemed clean so he applied the glue and a couple of butterfly bandages to help keep the gap closed and thus as small a scar as he could manage. Brains looked over the rest of his body, and other than a few small bruises, there seemed to be nothing else wrong with the diver. However, Brains wanted to be cautious. With Grandma Tracy’s help, they strapped him to a backboard and lifted him onto his side so Brains could x-ray his back. They were always worried about Gordon re-injuring himself, and Brains was not going to take any chances. The pictures came back good and he allowed himself to breath normally again. They laid him back down, took away the backboard and dressed him like his brothers. 

Brains finally turned to the last of the brothers. Scott didn’t have any obvious wounds like his brothers, but that didn’t mean that nothing was wrong. Brains and Grandma Tracy cut off his suit, making note of some bruising along his ribs, and legs. Brains took some x-rays, and found that nothing had completely broken, but a couple of ribs were cracked. He did see something else in the x-ray, he had fluid in his lungs. This could be due to inhaling some water, and since they had been in the Indian Ocean, it was a possibility. He made another mental note to keep an eye on him, if that didn’t clear up on his own, it could lead to other issues. Brains wrapped his torso up, like John’s and then continued his exam. He found two bumps on Scott’s head, one on the front near his hairline and a larger one on the back of his head. He opened his eye and it contracted slowly. Deciding not to chance it, he hooked Scott up to the heart monitor, as well as IV fluids and the same medication he had put John on. They then redressed him like his brothers so that he would be more comfortable. 

Stepping back, he looked down the room at the five brothers and decided to add one more precaution to them. He pulled out, what appeared to be thick bulky clips from one of the drawers and attached one to each of the brother’s middle finger. They were pulse oximetry meters which showed their blood oxygen levels. John, Virgil, Alan, and Scott’s levels were low so he hooked each of them up with some oxygen via nasal cannula. Satisfied that he had done all he could do Brains sat back down at the desk, while Grandma Tracy continued to move from bed to bed, caressing and babying her boys. Thankful that they were home once more. 


	9. The Aftermath

Brains was finally able to convince Grandma Tracy to go to bed around midnight, though she had actually fallen asleep hours before. He promised that he would stay there to watch over the boys and let her know if anything happened, or if any word made it to them about Kayo. Max and EOS were still working on the antenna, having come across a part that they did not currently have in stock, they had to figure out a work around for it. Normally Brains would have been up to the challenge, but even he was drained by the day’s events. It was the middle of the night, almost nearing dawn. Brains was sitting at the desk, sipping some coffee, reading some new material he had downloaded a few days ago. The words on the tablet were blurring together and even he was having trouble making sense of them. He had just leaned back to stretch when he heard a groan come from behind him. He popped up from his chair and glanced at each of the beds, to figure out which of the Tracy’s were waking up. It was Virgil. 

Brains was over by his bedside in a moment, checking his monitors, IV, and hand. He lifted his eyelid and flashed the light in it, and was thankful to see it retract quickly. Virgil moaned again and reached up with his bad hand to bat the annoying light away. Brains ducked and took hold of his arm to keep him from slamming it down and causing him a good amount of pain. 

“John, Alan,” He moaned again, as he tried to pull his arm away from Brains. 

“Virgil, c…can you hear me?” Brains asked as he continued to hold onto his arm, “Your s…safe now. John and Alan are o…okay.” 

“Thunderbird 3… I can’t control her…” Virgil had opened his eyes, but didn’t seem to know where he was. Brains was concerned, but knew if he swung his arm around anymore he could cause even more damage. His decision made, Brains ran to the medicine cabinet and pulled out a syringe and vile. He filled the syringe, making sure to get rid of the air bubbles and then injected it into Virgil’s IV. Slowly the drug made it’s way into Virgil’s blood stream and he calmed down and faded back into a deep sleep. Brains realized at that moment, that he had not given the boys any kind of pain medicine. He had been so intent on their physical injuries, making sure they were properly taken care of, that it hadn’t occurred to him that they had also been in pain. He chastised himself as he went around and gave them all doses hoping they would forgive him when they woke up. 

Brains returned to the desk and sat down. He tried to continue to read his tablet, but soon found his head on the desk, his breathing slow and even. He slept for the next few hours until EOS appeared opening up the security feed from the lounge. 

“IS ANYONE HERE? BRAINS? GRANDMA,” Kayo yelled at the empty room around her. Brains rubbed his eyes and stood to go meet her, but EOS stopped him. 

“Grandma Tracy is on her way,” She reported. Nodding Brains turned to check on the boys one more time before Kayo arrived. 

 

Kayo turned around and looked throughout the large lounge and even up on the small balcony above hoping for anyone to show up when she suddenly heard her name,

“Kayo!” Kayo spun to find Grandma Tracy walking out from deeper in the house, “Thank goodness you’re okay! We have been so worried about you!” Kayo leapt into the older woman’s arms who hugged her back with force.

“Where are the others? Where are the boys?” Kayo pulled away tears running down her face, “We saw the birds, what happened?” 

“We?” Grandma Tracy asked as she looked out toward the pool and happened to see Lady Penelope and Parker just coming to the top of the stairs, “Oh good, they’re here too.” 

“Grandma!” Kayo begged.

“First, I want you to settle down for a moment,” Grandma Tracy instructed, “Dry your eyes and take some deep breaths.” 

“But,” Kayo tried to protest, but the firm look from Grandma Tracy cut her argument off. Kayo frowned and wiped her eyes on the back of her arm, bringing her bandaged wrist to Grandma Tracy’s attention. 

“Looks like you could use a little TLC as well,” She commented as she took Kayo’s hands into her own and examined them. 

“Grandma Tracy, I am so pleased to see you well,” Lady Penelope announced as they finally caught up, “But what in the world has happened?” 

“We’ve had a bit of a rough day,” Grandma Tracy replied a small smile on her lips, “Now that Kayo is home, everything is fine.” 

“But what about the others?” Kayo begged squeezing the hands that held hers. 

“I’ll take you to them. They are hurt, but they are Tracy’s. They will survive,” She smiled as she waved for the three to follow her down the slightly hidden hall that led to the more secretive parts of Tracy Island. 

They followed Grandma Tracy to the infirmary, a room nobody liked and had hoped would never use. However, when Jeff Tracy had built the room, he had built it for a worse case scenario. Ten beds, with all the equipment and technology of the finest hospitals. Grandma Tracy paused for a moment and turned to face the three behind her,

“Now, before I open the door, I want you to listen to me.” She waited until all three had nodded before proceeding, “Brains will be able to give you a more detailed analysis of their conditions, but they are going to be okay. No matter what it looks like, they are going to be okay.” She opened the door and the three looked in to the occupants of the infirmary. Five of the ten beds were occupied, three along one wall of the long room and two along the other. Brains was standing next to one of the beds looking at a chart and turned when he heard the door open.

“Kayo!” He exclaimed upon seeing her, “I…I’m so glad you’re okay!” But Kayo wasn’t listening, she had her hands to her mouth and tears running down her face. 

“Come now, Kayo,” Grandma took her by the arm and led her farther into the room. 

“What happened,” Kayo almost screamed looking frantically between Grandma Tracy and Brains. 

“W…we don’t really know the details,” Brains frowned looking from the boys to the small group before him, “But I will tell you everything that I do know.” Kayo clenched her teeth and nodded. Brains walked over to the first bed, the one closest to Kayo where the oldest, and seemingly less damaged, of the brothers lay and began to explain what they knew.  

“Scott and Gordon left in T…thunderbird 2 just after your communications broke up. We l…lost contact with them just after noon. They were in the middle of searching for you,” Brains explained catching them up with the events.  

“That must have been,” Kayo gasped and clenched her fists at her sides. 

“Kayo?” Grandma Tracy kept her arm around the young girl as she started to shake. 

“If I had only been able to stop that machine,” Kayo shook her head as she relayed to the others the events that had happened to her on that ship and how it had been her fault Thunderbird 2 had crashed. 

“Kayo, there is no way any of this is your fault,” Grandma Tracy shook her slightly to get her attention. 

“But, if I had told Scott where I was, if i had checked in like he asked me to…”

“If horses had wings and could fly,” Grandma Tracy shot back, “There is no point in thinking of all the what-ifs. You did what you could at the time, nothing less. Do you understand me?” Kayo wanted to argue, but knew better and just nodded. 

“Was Scott the one that landed Thunderbird 2,” Penelope asked.

“No, Scott was actually in the m…med bay strapped to one of the beds. Gordon was the one that landed Thunderbird 2.” They all turned their heads to the next closest bed, on the other side of the room. They all moved in a little group and gathered around Gordon. 

“Gordon’s injuries are pretty straight forward,” Brains explained pointing to his broken nose and bandaged hand, “I doubt these happened when Thunderbird 2 crashed.”

Kayo couldn’t help but feel responsible for the two brother’s injuries, but choose not to voice her thoughts at the moment. She looked over at the remaining three beds and then turned to Brains, “What happened to them then?” 

“We think someone h…hacked into Thunderbird 5,” Brains announced. Kayo’s knees buckled and she fell to the floor almost taking Grandma Tracy with her. Penelope caught her in time and helped in lowering her safely down. Brains knelt down in front of her pulling a small flashlight from his pocket checking her eyes as she stared blankly ahead, “I should p..probably give you a full exam as well.” 

“T…they were hacking her,” Kayo gasped, “They were hacking Thunderbird 5.” Brains leaned back and stared at Kayo in shock.

“How do you know? and who is they?” 

“The men who had the EMF device that caused us to crash. They had gotten an access code from someone at Tracy Industries,” Kayo announced as she felt around her pockets looking for something. She unzipped a pocket and pulled out a small drive handing it over to Brains, “I took this from their computer. I don’t know if it’ll help or not.” 

Brains took the small drive and walked over to his tablet, “EOS, look through this. It may have some information on our hackers.” 

“Absolutely!” The AI announced in an overly cheerful voice, “We’re almost done building the antenna as well, soon I will get my revenge.” 

“I m…may have to block her from using the antenna,” Brains mused as he turned back to the others who were staring at him in surprise, “She came down with John.” He waved them off and returned to the group leading them over to Virgil’s bed one down from Scott. 

“After your distress call, Scott ordered Virgil to go with Alan to get John off of Thunderbird 5. B…because of the hacker he was not able to use the Space Elevator,” Brains explained. 

“Wait, Virgil? In space?” Penelope asked a little shocked. 

“I thought Virgil couldn’t do space,” Kayo tried to clarify.

“He doesn’t. N…not well, at least,” Brains confirmed, “Scott and him argued for a bit, but Scott had made his decision, so Virgil went.” 

“I wonder how long he lasted,” Parker mused. 

“Well, he wasn’t the one we found strapped in the med bay, so longer than normal. Maybe after this he’ll be able to do more in space,” Grandma Tracy suggested.

“N…no, he is severely dehydrated, and there was some blood in his mouth,” Brains shook his head, “I imagine he was throwing up most of the time they were up there. N…normally he would have been brought right back down, but something happened.” 

“The hacker said he was able to control the gravity, thrusters, and the airlocks,” Kayo explained. 

“That makes sense,” Brains nodded, “Just before I lost contact with Thunderbird 3, they had just made visual contact with Thunderbird 5. They said that the gravity ring was going crazy and that the ship itself was b…bouncing around.” 

“With John on board,” Penelope asked frowning. 

“Y..yes. Virgil and Alan had to cut the power to the gravity ring so they could go get him,” Brains continued,“I stayed in contact with them, for a bit, but lost contact after they had boarded Thunderbird 5,”

“At some point, Virgil broke his hand. Maybe when the airlocks opened,” Grandma Tracy added. 

“Wait, if Thunderbird 5 was acting all crazy, then Thunderbird 3 probably wasn’t able to dock, right,” Kayo asked.

“That is c…correct.” 

“So then, Virgil had to do an EVA… if not multiple ones.” 

“That is a p..possibility.”

“Oh, dear,” Penelope shook her head, “But what about John?” The group then moved to the next brother across from Virgil, a bed down from Gordon. 

“John is severely concussed, though it may not look it, he was thrown around T…Thunderbird 5 pretty badly,” Brains then leaned over and opened each of John’s eyes watching as they contracted slowly against the light above them a hopeful sign.

“So he was probably unconscious when they arrived,” Penelope asked.

“More than likely, but when we retrieved them off of Thunderbird 3 John was in the co-pilot seat, so he w…woke up at some point.” 

“Only to get knocked out again,” Parker shook his head. 

“Where was Alan when they landed,” Kayo asked looking over at the last occupied bed in the room. Grandma Tracy was almost holding Kayo up she was shaking so bad, as they moved over to that bed. 

“I…I’m unsure what exactly happened to Alan. He had a c…compound fracture to his left arm. Something also sliced his abdomen open, though luckily not very deep,” Brains explained shaking his head. 

“They probably weren’t prepared when the airlocks were opened,” Penelope pointed out, “They had to grab something and both broke bones in the process.” 

“That is v…very likely, Lady Penelope,” Brains looked down at the chart to see if there was anything else. 

“Kayo, come sit down on the bed,” Grandma Tracy announced suddenly and led her over to one of the empty beds. 

“Yes, l…let me check your vitals,” Brains walked around the bed and once again flashed his small light in her eyes.

“She’s hurt her wrists as well,” Grandma Tracy announced as she lifted her arms to show Brains. Kayo just sat quietly her mind running with everything she had been through and everything she had just learned about the others as Brains went through and checked her out. 

“Brains,” Kayo spoke as Brains was getting ready to listen to her heart, “Why couldn’t we contact the island? What happened to the communications antenna?” 

“Thunderbird 3 c…clipped the island taking it out as she landed,” Brains explained, “Max is working on making a temporary one. These wrists were bandaged nicely.” 

“Yes, a friend of mine took good care of her,” Penelope explained, “She is a fine nurse.” 

“Yes, I can see that,” Brain nodded, “Kayo.” Kayo wasn’t listening anymore she had zoned out once again her brain working. “Kayo!” 

“Huh?” Kayo jumped at being yelled at and blinked slowly.

“I want you to stay here for a little, get some fluids in you,” Brains announced as he walked over to the medicine cabinet and pulled out another IV bag of fluid. 

“No, Brains, I’m fine,” Kayo tried to stand up, but found that her legs were turning traitor and didn’t want to support her weight. 

“This i…is not a discussion,” Brains said, walking toward her with the IV needle in his hand. Realizing that she was not going to be able to make a break for it, she leaned back in the bed and turned her head. She never did like getting stuck with needles, but knew the less she fought the faster it would be over with. 

“Ow!” Brains wasn’t quite as practiced with putting the IV’s in as Virgil was, and Kayo glared at him for a moment as he apologized. 

“Once the bag is empty, you’ll be free to go,” Brains instructed her, and then turned to Penelope and Parker, “Are you two okay?” 

“Oh yes, perfectly fine. We unfortunately missed out on the adventure this time,” Lady Penelope frowned looking over the boys, “How long do you think think they will be unconscious?” 

“Virgil a…actually woke last night. He was confused and disoriented, so I sedated him,” Brains explained, “He should wake up this morning sometime. As for the o…others, soon I hope.” Kayo was watching each of the boys hoping for some sign of consciousness when she felt a hand on her shoulder. 

“It’s going to be okay, Kayo,” Penelope announced. 

“I know. I just can’t believe how crazy this all is,” Kayo shook her head and looked down at her bandaged wrists.

“You said they got the access code from someone at Tracy Industries, didn’t you?” 

“Yes, they bought it from someone there. I didn’t recognize the guy, but I think he was after the company. He thought that they may have found some secret project the company was working on.” 

“Well, they weren’t completely wrong,” Parker pointed out.

“I think we have some work to do, Parker,” Penelope looked over at the boys again, “Contact me as soon as your are able and let us know about the boys.” 

“We promise,” Grandma Tracy nodded. 

“L…lady Penelope wait a moment,” Brains walked to the door where Max was waiting, “Looks like Max finished the temporary antenna. It is not very strong but at least we’ll be able to stay in c…contact.” Max rolled forward and handed Lady Penelope a large black box. “You can use this to contact us.” 

“Not very pretty is it,” Lady Penelope commented and Max slumped in disappointment, “But I’m sure it works wonderfully.” Max perked up a little and Parker and Penelope left with Brains. Grandma Tracy stayed behind next to Kayo’s bed looking over the girl, concerned. 

“You’re still not thinking this is all your fault are you?” 

“How is it not?” Kayo argued slumping down in the bed. 

“According to Brains, the hacking had started earlier in the week. They still would have had to go up and get John.” 

“But it would have been Scott, not Virgil,” Kayo countered. 

“True, but that doesn’t mean Scott couldn’t have been injured as well. And once they found the source of the hacking, they may have crashed anyways since they already had that AED thing.”

“EMF.”

“Whatever. The point is, in some weird way, it was a good thing that you had disappeared.”

“How is that?” 

“Well, if you hadn’t you may not have ended up on that ship, and gotten that drive, or found out it was them doing the hacking.” 

“I still don’t like it.”

  “I’m not asking you to like it,” Grandma Tracy smiled and patted her hand, “I’m just asking you not to blame yourself for things you cannot control.” 

“I’ll work on it,” Kayo frowned.

“I suppose that’s a start,” Grandam Tracy stood and started to the door, “I’ll go get you some breakfast. If they start to wake up just let EOS know, she’ll alert us.” 

 

It was over an hour later when Kayo looked up at the bag hanging next to her, the level of fluid having only dropped about a third of the way, “Brains.” She looked over to the desk where the engineer was sitting again, “How long is this going to take?” 

“Oh, the entire bag, about four hours,” He responded.

“What?” 

“But, since you ate a good breakfast, and if you promise to keep drinking water today, I can take it out now.” 

“Yes, please! I can’t stand just sitting here doing nothing,” Kayo begged. Brains couldn’t help but smile at the girl. He had noticed her tapping her fingers and fiddling with her jumpsuit, picking at a random sticker on the bed, and other things to keep her mind busy. She was not one to take being made to sit still. Brains had just pulled the needle from her arm when once again a moan echoed through the quiet room. They both looked up and across the room, Virgil had started to stir. 

Kayo jumped from her bed, Brains right behind her, and they were by his side in an instant. 

“Virgil?” Kayo called as she leaned over the bed, “Virgil can you hear me?” 

“Where am I?” Virgil mumbled, “What happened?”

“Y…you crash landed. You’re on T…Tracy Island,” Brains responded, as he watched his heart monitor and blood oxygen levels closely. 

“Crashed…. John! Alan!” Virgil started to sit up his eyes wide but both Kayo and Brains put their hands on his shoulder and kept him from popping up. 

“They’re alright, everyone is back home. Safe and sound,” Kayo answered soothingly. Slowly Virgil blinked and looked up at the two above him.

“Kayo? You’re alright?” 

“Yeah, just a couple bumps is all.”

“Scott and Gordon found you okay?” 

“Well, not exactly,” Kayo frowned and looked over at Brains. 

“What happened?” Virgil tried to sit up again, but the two would not let him. 

“You need to rest some more, Virgil,” Brains ordered him.

“I want to know what is wrong with my brothers,” Virgil growled, “Where are they?” 

“They’re right here,” Kayo answered, moving down the bed a little so Virgil could see Scott off to his side.

“And Gordon?” 

“Just over there,” Kayo loosened her grip so he could sit up on his elbow and see his other brother. 

“What happened to them?”

“We don’t exactly know,” Brains reported, “We’ll need to wait till they wake up to find out.” 

“But weren’t you with them,” Virgil asked looking at Kayo.

“No, they never found me. Lady Penelope brought me home.” 

“Damn,” Virgil slumped back down onto his bed. 

“H…how are you feeling?” 

“Like crap.” 

“C…could you be more specific?” 

“My hand is throbbing,” Virgil sighed knowing that Brains was just running down the checklist he himself had created, “My head hurts too, but it’s more like the shadow of a headache. Chest is a little sore, and I’ve got an awful taste in my mouth.” 

“I didn’t think to x-ray your chest,” Brains mused.

“No need, they’re not broken. I think it’s just from all the dry heaving I did.” 

“Yes, I assumed that may have happened,” Brains nodded as he made note of the empty fluid bag, “I’ll refill this, I’m sure you need the fluids.” 

“I’m sure i do,” Virgil agreed gruffly. 

“Would you like some more pain killers?” 

“When did you give them last?” 

“Um, this morning, maybe three hours ago. But I only gave you a small dose.” 

“Nah, I can stand it for a few more hours, but then I want a full one.” 

“Of course,” Brains walked away to enter some more data into Virgil’s chart and to collect a new bag of fluids. 

“Kayo, can I ask two favors of you?” 

“Sure, anything.” 

“Sit me up, and a glass of water?” Kayo smiled as she hit the button to raise the head of the bed so that Virgil wasn’t limited to the view of the ceiling anymore. Once he was satisfied that he could see all of his brothers, she made her way over to the small kitchenette and filled a cup with ice. 

Virgil didn’t say much, just sucked on his ice as he watched his brothers. They knew not to push him to talk about the events up there, he would tell them in time. Brains eventually made his way out of the infirmary leaving Kayo to alert him if the other’s woke up. Soon after he had left, Grandma Tracy arrived, EOS having alerted her to Virgil’s awakening. She smothered him with love, which embarrassed Virgil a little, and promised him some of her homemade cookies, which caused Virgil to pale a little. She left soon after, and the two sat in silence. 

They didn’t talk much as the hours passed on, Grandma Tracy brought them some lunch, which was edible, and then left them with a deck of cards. Kayo had to help him organize his cards in his one good hand, without looking at them, and also play the cards. Several times Virgil tried to grab a card with his splint hand, only to realize at the last second it wasn’t going to work. Kayo laughed and reached out to grab the card he wanted to lay down. They played several games, and the day had dragged on to evening when another of the brothers decided to wake up. 

Scott had groaned loudly which caused Virgil and Kayo to jump at the sound. Kayo spun around to go to Scott’s side, but then stopped and turned to face Virgil again, “You stay right there,” She ordered. Virgil frowned but hiked himself higher in his bed to get a better look at his older brother. “EOS, let Brains and Grandma Tracy know Scott’s awake.” 

“They have been informed,” EOS replied and then mumbled, “I don’t see why those two can wake up and not John.” 

“He’s just not ready yet, EOS,” Virgil replied feeling sorry for the young AI. 

“I know,” She replied and then her presence disappeared from the infirmary. 

“Gotta find Kayo,” Scott mumbled as he tried to open his eyes but the light was too bright above him. 

“I’m right here, Scott. I’m fine,” Kayo grabbed his hand and leaned over his bed so that she blocked the light from the ceiling. He slowly blinked and looked up at Kayo as if it had been the first time he’d ever seen her. 

“You’re safe?” He asked as he reached up and touched her cheek, “I thought you were in the sub.” 

“No, I wasn’t in the sub,” Kayo replied as she felt a couple of tears start to run down her cheek. 

“You should have stayed with your bird,” Scott scolded and Kayo couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Well, he’s feeling okay,” Virgil commented as Brains entered the room. He looked him over really good first and then started to go through Virgil’s checklist. 

“What is the last thing you remember?” Brains asked as he checked Scott’s eyes, pleased that they were contracting and dilating well. 

“We were on a submarine, I thought that Kayo might be on board, and then there was water… wait Gordon,” Scott went to pop up from his bed, but Kayo and Brains once again worked together to hold him down. 

“Gordon is fine,” Kayo assured him, “Black eyes not withstanding,” 

“Yeah, pissed one of our captors off,” Scott grimaced. 

“H…how did he hurt his hand?” Brains asked.

“His hand? What happened,” Scott once again went to rise, but Kayo and Brains refused to let him. 

“Okay, that happened after you passed out then,” Brains nodded and then raised his bed up so he could see the rest of the room. It was then that he caught sight of his next brother and the others in the room. 

“Oh, Virgil, I’m sorry,” Scott frowned looking over at him. 

“You better be,” Virgil frowned holding up his hand for him to see, “You owe me big time.” 

“I should have went up with Alan, and you should have gone looking for Kayo.” 

“No, you should have went to bed and sent Gordon with Alan.” 

“And then who would have gone with you to find Kayo?” 

“Who said anyone needed to go with me?” 

“I had Gordon and we barely made it out of there!” 

“Yeah, thanks to Gordon! It doesn’t look like you were of any help!” 

“Oh, I’m sure you did a lot up there, probably puking your brains out the entire time.” 

“Yes, Yes I was, and I was still able to get BOTH of my brother’s back to Thunderbird 3 and back to Earth… not entire sure how I did that, but I did!” 

“Both of you STOP!” Kayo yelled, “You should be happy that you’re okay, not arguing about who is at fault.” 

“Kayo’s right,” Scott sighed breaking his gaze with Virgil. 

“Thank goodness, I was trying to get some sleep over here,” A voice announced. They all turned to look at Gordon who had a sheepish grin on his otherwise bruised face. 

“How long have you been awake?” Virgil growled as he threw a pillow at his younger brother. 

“Ow, watch the nose,” Gordon exclaimed throwing the pillow back at Virgil, “Long enough, and Scott owes me too.” 

“And why is that,” Scott asked his defenses raised again. 

“You were a walking zombie the entire time!” Gordon frowned sitting up in bed, “If you hadn’t gone off trying to find Kayo… glad to see your okay by the way… then you wouldn’t have been knocked out, i wouldn’t have had to drag your bloody body back to Thunderbird 4, slice my hand trying to fix the stupid thruster on Thunderbird 2 and get us home by myself!” Virgil smiled satisfied that his assumption of Scott’s condition was correct while Scott just started at his little brother. “Seriously, Scott, why did you think it was okay to hail a group of pirates to see if they’d seen Kayo?” 

“I didn’t make you,” Scott tried to argue, but Gordon shot him down.

“I tried to tell you it wasn’t a good idea, but you insisted saying that we were a rescue organization, we didn’t care what they were doing.” 

“I was worried about Kayo!” Scott yelled back. 

“So was I,” Gordon exclaimed slamming his hands down on his bed wincing, “I had to pretend I was Virgil to get you to sleep that little bit you did when we were locked in the sub.” 

“Gordon, I…”

“No, Scott,” Gordon continued, his breathing starting to get labored as tears began to run freely, “You push yourself too hard, you don’t know your own limits and that caused us… caused me trouble!” 

“G…Gordon, you need to s…settle down,” Brains was by his side, trying to get the fish to lay down again. He did hesitantly, and curled up on his side, his injured hand cradled in his stomach.

“I was so worried,” He sobbed, “I was worried about Kayo, I was worried about you, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to get us out of there.” Scott had leaned forward as he argued, but at this last burst from Gordon he collapsed back into his bed, his face blank in horror at what he had made his brother go through. He was always trying to protect them, make sure that they were okay first before himself. He had completely failed this time, and not only Gordon, but all of them. He watched as Brains fiddled with Gordon’s hand, laying a bloody bandage on the bed next to his feet and replacing it with a clean one. Brains then hung up another unit of blood, and checked the monitors. 

“Scott Tracy,” Everyone turned to the voice and saw Grandma Tracy in the doorway, “I know that look on your face and don’t you even start to blame yourself.” 

“But, if…” Scott started, but she strode over to his bed and took a shoulder into each hand looking down at him.

“What did your father tell you about blaming yourself? Hmm?”

“He said it was wasted effort,” Scott replied softly, “That I would make mistakes, that I may inadvertently put my brother’s in danger, but what was important were the steps I took to fix the problem, not the time to place blame.” 

“Exactly. You all made it back safely. Learn from this, and don’t waste your time blaming yourself or anyone else,” She nodded satisfied with his answer. Then she pulled him to her and gave him a hug, “I’m glad your safe, and here, and awake.” 

“Thank you, Grandma,” Scott buried his face in her shoulder and cried. They stayed like that for a couple of minutes until Grandma Tracy finally pulled herself away and turned to her little fish. 

“Gordon,” She sat down on the bed next to him, pulling him up so she could hug him as well, “You did good. I’m proud of you.” They all realized that she had been in the doorway the entire time listening to everything that had happened. Gordon just hugged her back and released the last of the stress and worry he had been holding in until then. Once Gordon was done, she released him and turned to the three, “I hope there won’t be a repeat of this when those two finally wake up?” 

“No, I think we got it out of our system,” Virgil replied, giving Scott a weary smile, which was returned. 

“Good,” Grandma Tracy turned to face Kayo who had just stood frozen in the middle of the argument unsure what to do, but was not able to say what she had planned when EOS’ blue ring appeared on the monitor.

“Is John awake yet?” She asked yet again. 

“NO!” Four of the conscious occupants of the room exclaimed and then started laughing at the looks from Scott and Gordon. 

“Don’t worry, you guys can join us next time,” Virgil laughed, “She pops in at least once a half hour to ask.” 

“Can’t blame her,” Scott nodded looking over at the last of his brothers who still slept soundly. 

“As I was saying,” Grandma smiled herself and walked over to Kayo, “Come help me in the kitchen. It’s about time for dinner, and I don’t want to make them more ill than they they already are.” She then dragged Kayo out of the room as the three Tracy’s watched in amazement. 

“Did she just admit that she can’t cook?” Gordon asked as Brains helped him to raise the head of the bed so he could see his brother’s better. 

“That’s what it sounded like to me,” Virgil confirmed. 

“She’s been trying really hard to follow the instructions,” Brains confirmed, “She realized she didn’t want your last meal to be something horrible she made you eat.” The room laughed at that and the tension eased among the brothers. However, their minds were still on the two at the end of the room, wondering just when they may wake up. 


	10. And the Family is Whole

Grandma Tracy and Kayo brought in their dinner a couple of hours later. It was simple enough, chicken noodle soup out of the can. Something Grandma Tracy couldn’t mess up too much. They ate it all, considering two of them hadn’t eaten in at least twenty-four hours, and then settled back in their beds napping a little. Brains, Kayo, and Grandma Tracy hadn’t slept much over the past few days, so they were encouraged to go on to bed. With the three of the brothers conscious, though still a little sleepy, Brains was confident enough to let them and EOS keep watch over their two remaining brothers while they did just that. Scott and Virgil assured him that everything would be okay, and that they would wake him if anything happened. 

The night was quiet, the three napped for a time, but by one o’clock they were all wide awake. 

“I think we need to instigate mandatory check-ins on all members of IR,” Scott suggested as they laid in the dim light of night mode in the infirmary. 

“Especially Kayo?” Virgil asked.

“Especially Kayo,” Gordon agreed, “Is there any way of having backup radios in the birds? It wouldn’t have been near as bad if I’d had Brains in my ear during all of that.” 

“We’ll defiantly look into it, even if they are using insecure channels, that’s better than nothing,” Scott nodded. 

“And mandatory rest periods, regardless of who you are,” Virgil frowned looking at Scott.

“I agree,” Scott nodded, “And we have to keep tabs on each other, make sure we aren’t pushing ourselves too hard.” 

“Are you saying I have permission to make you go to bed,” Gordon asked his eyes twinkling. 

“How about this,” Virgil suggested, readjusting himself in his bed, “The younger brother has to keep their eye on their immediate older brother.” 

“So, Alan would watch me, I would watch John, John would watch Virgil, and Virgil would watch Scott? Then who would watch Alan?” 

“I would,” Scott nodded liking the idea. 

“Okay, but then We don’t see John a lot, how would I know if he needed to be asleep? And same with him and Virgil?” 

“That is a good point. How about this, Gordon, you would watch Virgil, and we trust John to EOS,” Scott suggested looking between his brothers, “EOS, what do you think about that?” 

“I don’t want anything else to happen to John, you can trust in me,” EOS’ blue halo bright in the dim room. 

“I’m glad to hear it,” Scott nodded. The room quieted down for a moment, while the brother’s thought of other improvements needed to make sure something of this caliber would never happen again. Gordon’s mind was drifting as he looked from John to Alan, and then back to John. More specifically he was looking at their heart monitors. 

“Virgil, why does Alan’s monitor look different than John’s?” It was an innocent question, but Virgil knew the dangers and whipped around to look at Alan’s monitor. 

“Damn,” He yelled as he pulled out his IV and jumped from bed, “He’s in v-tach!” Virgil was in the nearby cupboard pulling out an AED machine, “Scott, I need your help!” 

“Right,” Scott tore out his own IV, jumped out of bed, and turned to Gordon, “You stay right there.” Gordon nodded, he was too scared to do anything. Scott joined Virgil at Alan’s bed. 

“Take off his shirt, rip it off if you need to,” Virgil ordered as he tried to attach the pads to the machine one handed.

“EOS, get Brains,” Gordon called as he rolled up onto his knees to get a better view, “And turn on the lights.”

“Brains is on his way,” EOS announced as the lights became glaringly bright. 

“Scott, put this one just below his shoulder,” Virgil ordered as he handed him one of the pads, “Take off the label, it’ll stick. This one here.” 

“Right, sorry,” Scott did as he was told. He had had training on the machine, they all had, but it had been awhile ago, and his mind was blank with shock as he tried to follow Virgil’s instructions. Virgil reached over and hit the big green button on the machine and waited for instructions. 

‘Searching for rhythm’ 

‘Ventricular Tachycardia Rhythm found’

‘Charging’

‘Charging complete. Hit red button when all clear’ 

 

“Clear,” Virgil yelled and Scott held his hands up and stepped away from the bed. Virgil pushed the red button and they could hear the thump as the machine discharged into Alan. 

 

‘Continue CPR’ the machine ordered. Scott climbed up next to his brother and started pumping on his chest, while Virgil glanced from the AED machine to the monitor next to him. He reached up and un-muted the machine. A loud alarm sounded making Gordon cover his ears. 

 

‘Searching for rhythm’

‘Ventricular Tachycardia Rhythm found’

‘Charging’ 

‘Charging complete. Hit red button when all clear’ 

 

“Clear,” Virgil yelled again and Scott jumped off the bed his hands again in the air. Virgil pushed the red button and the thump once again echoed in the room. This time however, the heart monitor silenced and then a normal beep beep beep as Alan’s heart found it’s normal rhythm again. 

 

‘Normal Rhythm found’ The machine announced. Virgil collapsed onto a nearby chair while Scott leaned back on the bed behind him. 

“W..what is g…going on?” Brains asked running into the room out of breath. 

“Alan, he went into v-tach,” Virgil explained waving a hand at his youngest brother, “I think we got it though.” 

“Thank goodness. I… I had noticed s…something wrong earlier, but nothing h…had happened. I thought it w…was okay,” Brains frowned as he walked over to Alan’s bed to inspect him. 

“Yeah, he had gotten shocked,” Virgil frowned.

“Shocked?” 

“Don’t even ask, I don’t know,” Virgil held up his hand to stop his brother. Scott frowned but didn’t continue. 

“I…I think I should stay,” Brains sighed as he unhooked the devise leaving the pads on just in case. 

“You need your rest too Brains,” Scott argued, “We were able to take care of it.” 

“And who i…is going to take care of you,” Brains asked as he lifted Scott’s arm and pointed to the trail of blood from where he had pulled out his IV. 

“Oh, you I guess,” Scott squirmed. 

“Sorry, Brains, didn’t have time to take it out properly,” Virgil smiled as he provided his own arm and it’s own track of blood. 

“I…I won’t put another one in,” Brains announced wrapping a small bandage around each of their arms. 

“How about me, Brains, can you take mine out too,” Gordon asked still kneeling in his bed. 

“Well, I suppose you as w…well,” Brains smiled as Gordon beamed at him. He took his out and put a small gauze patch inside his elbow bending it, “Just hold your arm like that for a few minutes.” 

“Do you think we’ll have to shock Alan again?” Scott asked looking concernedly at his brother.

“Hopefully not. I had to shock him in space, his heart had completely stopped up there, but then he had also run out of air. I left the AED on him and have no idea if it had shocked him again after that or not. But the fact that Brains noticed an oddity in his rhythm means that his heart wasn’t beating right. Now, it looks normal so hopefully this kicked it back into it’s proper rhythm,” Virgil explained as he reached over and un-muted John’s monitor as well, “And don’t ask for more right now Scott. I’m not in the mood.” 

“Fine, but once everyone is awake we are have having one huge debriefing. I want to know what happen to everyone on and off the island,” Scott announced as he made his way back to his own bed. 

“I think that is a good i…idea,” Brains nodded, “And I think you all should go to bed now.” 

“You should be asleep too Brains, you look like Scott did the other day.” 

“Gordon,” Scott warned, but couldn’t be too mad at him after what he had pulled. 

“Someone needs to stay awake,” Virgil argued as he pulled himself back into his bed. 

“I’m so wired up right now, there’s no way I could sleep,” Gordon announced bouncing a bit on his bed. The three looked at him and shrugged. 

“A…Alright, I’ll sleep in here t..tonight. In case something happens,” Brains agreed crawling into one of the empty beds. The lights dimmed and the three quickly dozed off the excitement draining any energy they had. Gordon remained on his knees in his bed watching as they fell asleep. 

“EOS,” Gordon called about an hour later. 

“Yes, Gordon?” 

“Shhhh,” Gordon hushed her, “Are they all asleep?” 

“Yes, I believe so, why?” 

“I want you to stay in here and watch them for a bit. I’ve got something I need to do.” 

“You’re supposed to stay in bed,” EOS argued, “Scott would be upset if something happened.” 

“I’ll be back, I just want to go grab something.” 

“Well, as long as you hurry,” EOS finally agreed. Grinning Gordon jumped out of bed stumbling momentarily and then disappeared through the doorway. He was gone for almost a half hour, which was starting to worry EOS, so she started going through the house’s security cameras to find him. He was on his way back to the infirmary carrying something quite puffy. He made his way back into the room and dropped the pile on the floor then started to sift through it, pulling a comforter out that was solid blue with a half dozen gray and red stripes long the bottom. He fluffed it out and draped it over Scott. Then he went back to the pile and pulled out a green plaid one and covered Virgil up in it. Next was a bright red one with white racing stripes that he threw over Alan, and then a dark black one that had images of the solar system on it that he threw over John. Finally he picked up a blue one that had images of a coral reef on it and threw it on his own bed. 

“There. We’re going to be in here for awhile, I imagine. Might as well make it more comfortable,” Gordon grinned. He then pulled out a small handheld gaming device and stuck one earphone in his ear, so that he wouldn’t bother anyone, but could still hear the beeping from Alan and John’s monitors. Gordon sat and played his game for a while before he started to feel sleepy and eventually dozed off as well. 

 

Kayo arrived the next morning with a tray of orange juice and oatmeal for the patients in the infirmary. She heard the steady beeping of the monitors and thought it odd, she was sure they had muted them. She stepped into the room and took a deep breath to call a good morning to them all, when she noticed someone sitting up and looking dazedly around the room. 

“John,” She exclaimed as she shoved the tray on the desk and ran down the length of the room to his bed. She looked up at his monitor quickly but it was showing an even steady rhythm, so she turned her attention to the man himself. “John, how are you feeling?” He blinked, looked down at her, his eyebrows knitted together. 

“on…fus,” He said in a questioning intonation. Kayo frowned, she didn’t like that at all. She looked around the room, the others were still asleep. 

“Virgil, Brains,” She called as she ran over and shook the two, not bothering to wonder why Brains was there in the first place. 

“Wha, Kayo, let me sleep,” Virgil grumbled as she shook him agin.

“John’s awake.” Virgil threw his covers off and jumped out of bed for the second time in so many hours. He was by John’s side, at the same time as Brains, who had woken up at her first shout.

“Hey,” Virgil called getting John’s attention, while Brains had pulled out his penlight and was flashing it in his eyes watching the irises contract and dilate. “What’s your name?” 

“On,” John frowned and tried again, “J…. on…. J…ohn… John.” He smiled a little proud of his accomplishment. 

“How old are you?” 

“T…,” John frowned for a moment and then tried again, “Two, four… no… Twen Four. Twenty-four.” 

“Good, good,” Virgil nodded continuing with his questions, “And who am I?” 

“Birgil,” He replied his responses coming faster and faster.  

“Close enough,” Virgil smiled, “Can you wiggle your toes, and fingers?” Brains had thrown the comforter aside and exposed his feet. John frowned and concentrated but slowly his appendages moved, slow at first and then steadily faster. 

“Good, J…John. Good,” Brains smiled. John had had a severe concussion, they hadn’t wanted to mention it aloud but brain damage was a real concern for this Tracy, “Can you touch your nose?” John held out his hand, the brace giving him some difficulty and slowly brought it in to touch his nose. 

“Good, now who is that,” Vigil asked pointing.

“Brains,” His voice was getting clearer, showing that his brain was waking up as well, and that he hopefully wouldn’t have the damage they had feared. “Kayo,” John continued pointing to her as she hovered just outside of his reach. “Scott, Gordon,” He continued pointing to the two who had awoken at the commotion going on,”… Alan?” 

“He’s fine,” Virgil assured him as John frowned at Alan’s motionless state. 

“Hey, John,” Gordon yelled to get his attention away from Alan, “What is the true rotation rate of Saturn's deep interior?”

“Gordon, he’s not going to be able to answer that yet,” Virgil frowned looking at his younger brother who was grinning broadly as he sat crosslegged on his own bed. 

“Don’t know,” John replied still a little slurred.

“See,” Virgil snapped. 

“No, Virgil,” John interrupted tugging on Virgil’s arm, “No one sure of rate of speed.” It was a slow reply, but coherent none the less, “Gordon, I talked. I send probe, no funding.” Virgil couldn’t help but drop his jaw in disbelief. 

“John,” Scott called getting his brother’s attention, “Do you remember what happened?” 

“Bird 5,” John frowned thinking. His mind seemed to be working, but his speech was still causing him some problems, “hacker. I woke, bird 3 shaking. I strapped, undid them. Found Alan strapped too. Thought Scott pilot, but no Virgil.” John frowned at Virgil worry evident in his eyes. 

“I’m fine,” Virgil assured him, “What happened next?” Virgil was eager to know too, he hadn’t remembered landing Thunderbird 3, but someone obviously had. 

“Bird 3, re-entry, hard. I landed, Did I hit island?” John asked looking at those before him. 

“You hit the antenna and then crashed on the small island to the east,” Brains explained. Understanding spread across his face. 

“What do you think of his speech, Brains,” Scott asked getting out of his own bed and joining the group, glancing back at Gordon with a don’t move look. Gordon just rolled his eyes. 

“Considering that it seems as if most of his other processes are working properly, he may just need to practice some more. Just keep talking,” Brain finished directing the last bit to John himself. John nodded his face stern. 

“Alan?” He asked again pointing to the youngest.

“It’s complicated,” Virgil shook his head, “But we think he’s going to be okay.” 

“John!” Grandma Tracy had walked in at that moment and quickly made her way down to the fourth grandson to wake. She bundled him up in a hug and didn’t seem to want to let go. 

“Grandma Tracy,” John stuttered, “I’m… okay.” 

“What is wrong with his voice?” She asked concern etched over her brow.

“It’s due to the h…head trauma,” Brains explained a little self conscious of his own stutter, “We’re hoping with p…practice he’ll be back to normal eventually.” 

“Well, he’s here, he’s awake, that’s what matters. Not his voice,” Grandma Tracy replied with an apologetic smile toward Brains, she realized how it had sounded and felt a little guilty. 

“Thunderbird 5, need to speak clearly,” John argued, frowning. 

“He does have a point,” Virgil frowned, “Well, it will be awhile before you could go back up there anyways. You’ll have time to practice.” 

“Hey, where did Gordon go,” Scott frowned looking around the room, “And when did we get our comforters?” 

“It wasn’t me,” Kayo shrugged as Scott looked at her for an answer.

“EOS, where is Gordon?” 

“Looks like…. JOHN!! You’re Awake!” The AI almost screamed when she noticed him sitting up, “Why didn’t anyone tell me!! John are you okay, are you damaged still, do you need spare parts?” She jumped from screen to screen trying to get a good look at her best friend. 

“EOS, I’m fine. I’m glad you too,” John smiled as he slowly responded to her, “Please, settle.” 

“Hey, John,” Gordon had reappeared and was back kneeling on his bed, “Catch.” He threw something across the room. John was slow to raise his hand, and Virgil reached up and plucked it from the air with his good hand, glaring at Gordon.

“How was he supposed to catch that, with one arm broken and the other in a sling,” Virgil asked waving his good hand at John. 

“Oh, sorry, forgot,” Gordon replied looking a little sheepish.

Virgil shook his head and looked down at what he had caught, his eyebrows raised, “From The Earth To The Moon, by Jules Verne.” It was one of John’s most treasured items, so much he would rather leave it safely on the island than take it to space with him. 

“I figured he could read it to us. He needs to practice, and we need something to do,” Gordon explained bouncing on his bed, his energy fully recharged. 

“Sounds good to me, Scott?” 

“I’m up for it if John is,” Scott looked over to John. 

“Give,” John ordered reaching out to grab the book, forgetting that he couldn’t quite grab anything at the moment. Virgil frowned a little, but opened the book and set it down on John’s lap, lifting the head of the bed so that he could relax a little. Then Scott and Virgil returned to their beds, Grandma Tracy and Brains found chairs to sit in, while Kayo collected the tray she had abandoned and started passing out breakfast to the others. She then sat down and listened. 

“Chapter…. One,” John struggled, “The… Gun Clu..b…During …the… War of …the Rebellion,… a new… and… influ…influen…

“tial,” Virgil helped when he noticed him having trouble with the sound. 

“influential,” John nodded smiling at his brother, “club was… esta…blish..ed in the city of Balti…more in the State of Mary…land.” 

They sat and listened as John struggled through the first chapter. It took a few hours, but they were all patient, just glad that he was awake and seemed to be okay. He would get better, they were all sure of it. But they were all taking glances to the last of their clan. The one that seemed to be having the most trouble coming back home. 

 

The morning had gone on, as they listened to the tale John read to them. Eventually Grandma Tracy and Kayo departed to start cooking lunch, while Brains busied himself with taking care of the boys. He did basic checks on Scott and Virgil. Once satisfied that they were doing well, he made his way over to Gordon to inspect his hand. He had left it open, afraid that it was going to get infected, but found that the wound was clean and the skin only slightly red from the trauma. He had eventually splint the hand similar to Virgil’s so that the wound wouldn’t start to heal and force his hand into a curled position. However, because of the placement of the wound there was no way around having to stitch it up. He motioned Virgil over to look at it as well, while Gordon rolled his eyes and tried not to pay attention to what they were doing. Virgil agreed quietly so as not to interrupt John’s reading. He was doing good and improving greatly. They pulled out the suture kit and Virgil went to work. He gave Gordon a local, and then started stitching the two halves of his hand together. Gordon grimaced, he couldn’t feel the pain as the needle poked through the skin, but he could feel the pull as the two edges of skin were forced back together. 

While Virgil worked on that Brains went over to Alan and inspected his open wound. It too was clean and very pretty looking as wounds went. He motioned Virgil over for his inspection once he had finished putting some skin glue over the stitches, and Virgil agreed that glueing the wound would work fine.  Brains held the wound closed while Virgil applied the glue to the surface waiting for the first coat to set, and then applied another one to make sure the seam was secure. They then left him uncovered and his top up so that the second coat had time to dry. 

They had just settled back down in their bed and chair when Kayo and Grandma Tracy returned with, well, more soup. No one complained and they passed it out as John neared the end of the first chapter. 

“He requests, therefore, that… they will make it …convenient to attend in… accordance with the present… invitation. Very cor… cor… 

“Cordially,” Scott supplied this time. 

“Cordially, Impey Barbicane, P.G.C.” John smiled as he looked up around the room at his smiling audience, “Alan!” 

“We told you…” Virgil began, but John just shook his head.

“He’s waking.” Everyone abandoned their lunch and rushed to Alan’s bed. Even Gordon was there before Scott could even think of telling him to stay still. Alan was groaning a little trying to move, but Virgil and Gordon had their good hands on his shoulders to keep him still. 

“Alan, you there,” Gordon called shaking him a little. 

“Alan, come on, wake up,” Virgil urged. 

“Jules Verne,” Alan mumbled as he slowly opened his eyes. Those around him couldn’t help but smile. 

“Yes, Alan, Jules Verne,” Virgil smiled down at his brother, tears threatening to run down his cheeks. 

“Why?” Alan mumbled again as he tried to open his eyes, but the room was just too bright. 

“John was reading to us,” Gordon explained grinning from ear to ear. 

“How are you feeling squirt,” Virgil asked as he forced one of his eyes open and shined a light into it.  

“Like crap,” Alan replied trying to push Virgil away, “and cold.”  

“More details, you know the drill,” Virgil couldn’t help but smile as he pulled his shirt down and covered him back in his comforter. 

“My head hurts, my chest hurts, my stomach hurts, my arm hurts. I’m not sure there is a place on me that doesn’t hurt,” Alan replied frowning at the blurry figures above him. 

“Your head, what kind of hurt?” 

“Throbbing.” 

“Brains, when was the last time he got some pain meds?” 

“Oh, quite some time ago,” Brains frowned and then turned to the medicine cabinet to get a dose. He handed it to Virgil who swiftly stuck the needle into Alan’s IV sending the medicine quickly into his blood stream. 

“There that should help,” Virgil leaned back down over him, “Do you remember what happened?” 

“Unfortunately,” Alan grimaced as he thought back to the mission, “Is John okay?” 

“Oh yeah, ask about John, not the brother who was horribly space sick,” Virgil smirked, “John is fine, he just woke up a few hours ago himself.”

“I knew you were fine idiot,” Alan frowned, “you are standing over me after all.” 

“He does have a point,” Scott smiled looking over at Virgil’s frown. 

“Alright, let’s give the squirt a little bit of room to wake up,” Virgil announced as he pressed the button to raise Alan’s bed. Once the area was cleared Alan was able to see John looking at him with a strange smile on his face. 

“John, are you okay?” Alan asked frowning.

“I’m fine,” John replied in his slurred speech. 

“Really?” 

“I’ve got to practice…. speaking,” John explained, “Too many hits to head.” He reached up and tapped his head with his broken arm. 

“Have you taken an MRI of his head yet?” Alan asked looking over at Virgil who was doing a quick check of Alan’s vitals. 

“I think Brains did when we first arrived. He does need another one though, it’s on the agenda.” 

“I’m worried.” 

“We all are. As long as he keeps improving he should be fine. If you feel he’s getting worse let us know.” Alan nodded. John had moved his head to talk to Gordon who had returned to his own bed, but Alan kept his eyes on his spaced out brother. 

“Alright, Alan, I do have one important question for you,” Virgil had finished checking his brother out but was still standing by his bed. 

“What,” Alan asked looking over at him. 

“The electric shock. What happened?” The room quieted down suddenly as everyone stopped to listen. 

“I… I just got shocked,” Alan replied not really wanting to explain his own stupidity. 

“Details,” Scott ordered, “You know the drill.” 

“Fine,” Alan sighed, “I went to the main computer to see if John had finished the emergency protocols. But the computer was dead. So I uncovered the wires and tried to patch the computer through the power to the lights.” Virgil had let his head fall into the palm of his good hand.

“And I’m guessing you didn’t turn the electricity off first.” 

“There wasn’t time,” Alan replied defensively, “You were getting John and I knew you wouldn’t last long up there.” 

“You know not to mess with live wires! That’s the first thing they teach you!” Virgil practically yelled. 

“I’m sorry,” Alan would have yelled back if he had had the energy to, “I didn’t know it would throw me across the room!” Virgil could only gape at him. An electrical shock bad enough to travel through his spacesuit and still send him across the room. It was no wonder his heart was messed up. 

“Alan,” Virgil exclaimed and then pulled his little brother to him burying his face in Alan’s shoulder, “Promise me, you’ll never do that again!” 

Alan stiffened, shocked at his brother’s behavior, but then relaxed and buried his own head in Virgil’s shoulder, “I’m sorry.” 

“I thought I told you lot, no fighting,” Grandma Tracy smiled as she made her way over to give her last grandson a smothering. Alan tried to push her away, but found himself much too weak to stop her from hugging and loving on him. 

“A…all right,” Brains announced calling the room to order, “I think our p…patients need a n..nap.” 

“Awww, I’m not tired,” Gordon complained even though his eyes were drooping a bit. 

“No e…exceptions,” Brains shook his head as he motioned for Kayo and Grandma Tracy to make their way out. 

“But I just woke up,” Alan yawned.

“EOS, would you keep an eye on them,” Brains asked watching the blue halo pulse on the computer screen. 

“Of course,” EOS replied as the lights dimmed and Brains shut the door behind him. 


	11. Recovery

It was two hours later that Kayo and Brains made their way back to the infirmary. The room was still dark, and EOS’ blue halo glowed on each of the screens behind the five beds that were occupied. 

“EOS.” 

“Yes, Brains?” 

“How are they doing?” 

“I was able to connect their monitors to the house systems so I can keep track of John and Alan. Their hearts have remained steady. And they all have slept the entire time.” 

“Good,” Brains smiled as he walked over to the supply closet and pulled out a couple of stretchers, “The other’s can keep sleeping, but I want to get John and Alan down to the MRI scanner.” Brains activated the hover mode on the stretcher and motioned for Kayo to follow him. They walked over to John’s bed, and Kayo shook his shoulder.

“John, wake up,” She called leaning down next to his head. 

“Why,” Came his slurred answer.

“We need to take some tests,” Kayo replied shaking him again. 

“I didn’t study,” John replied as he tried to roll over on his bad shoulder and winced at the pain that shuddered through him. 

“Come on, John,” Kayo shook him again. Slowly his eyes cracked open and he looked at the two shadows above him. 

“Why’s it dark? Is it night?” 

“No, the lights are just off. The other’s are s…still asleep,” Brains smiled as he put down the side bar on the bed. 

“Why don’t they have to get up?” 

“Because they didn’t get as many knocks to the head as you,” Kayo replied frowning at Brains, “Is it just me or does he sound like an eight-year-old?” 

“I hope it’s just because he’s still half asleep,” Brains was frowning as well, “Hold the stretcher as I get him on.” Kayo did as she was told, helping to transfer John over. They pulled him down toward the door and then went to get Alan. 

“A…Alan, time to w…wake up,” Brains announced shaking him. Alan woke up a bit faster, but was still slow to understand what was going on.

“It’s still dark,” He complained as he tried to pull his comforter over his head. Kayo pulled it back down.

“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” She corrected him, “Come along now, you have some tests to do.” Brains pulled him off of the bed and onto the stretcher with Kayo’s help, and then they pushed them out of the infirmary and down the hall where the large machine was stored. By the time they arrived they were fully awake. Alan was complaining to Brains as to why he couldn’t have slept longer, while John just frowned up at Kayo. 

“You okay?” Kayo asked as she pushed him into the room. 

“Yeah, just…. tired,” John replied. His speech had improved even more which raised Kayo’s hopes. “I was dreaming about something from childhood.” 

“Ah,” Kayo smiled over at Brains who had parked Alan to the side of the room and had joined her, that was why he sounded like an eight year old, “What did you dream about?” 

“When mom died,” John frowned as they strapped him in. Brains went on into the control room to start the machine up while Kayo stayed behind to listen. “I had Alan up to the roof one night. He had nightmare, and I was calm him down. He wanted mom, and I was explain to him she had gone space, and was star now. She would watching over us from there,” John looked over at Kayo and smiled a little, “He said, he go to space grew up he could be with again. After he was fine, no more nightmares.” 

“That sounds sweet,” Kayo smiled glancing over to where Alan lay listening, “Lay back now, so we can get a good picture of your head.” John nodded and relaxed on the platform while Kayo put in a pair of small earphones in his ears. She went to the far side of the room where Alan was and handed him a pair of earphones as well. “Do you remember that?” 

“No, I was only three, but for some reason whenever I thought about mom I would always look to the stars. I never knew why…,” Alan trailed off and looked over at his brother. Kayo patted him on the shoulder and then went into the control room to join Brains. The machine started up as the platform slowly entered. 

Brains had pulled up previous scans and was going through them as they waited for the current scan to start compiling its data. 

“See, this was taken a couple of years ago, when we first got the machine,” Brains explained brining up pictures from John’s file. “This was the one I did a couple of days ago after they first landed,” He then swiped the first set of images to the side and brought up another. 

“What are those dots,” Kayo asked pointing to a few spots that appeared on the second set of images.

“Those are from the trauma,” Brains explained, “Hopefully with this scan they will be gone.” 

“How are you doing in there John,” Kayo asked over the two-way radio.

“Well, isn’t helping headache,” John replied in a loud voice, “Brains, when hook up this TV?”

“What, the TV’s not hooked up?” Alan replied listening in on the conversation, “What am I supposed to do while it’s scanning?” 

“I t…totally forgot about it,” Brains laughed, “Sorry, guys, I guess I never thought it would be needed.” 

“Well, I’m be needing more scans, so could get science channel I be appreciative.” 

“And the racing channel,” Alan added. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” Brains smiled. 

 

Those that had been left in the infirmary slept quietly, unaware of the two that had left. Gordon was the first to wake of the brothers, and rubbed his eyes, regretting the action when he bumped his nose. He yawned and looked around him, stopping on John and Alan’s empty beds. 

“John,” he called, sitting up on his knees and looking around, “Alan!” He jumped from his bed and ran down the room thinking that they might have tried to get out of bed and fallen, but there was no sign of his brothers anywhere. “Virgil!” Gordon ran over to his other older brother and shook him awake, “Virgil, John’s gone!” 

“What?” Virgil was slow to wake up, coughing lightly, and blinked blearily at Gordon, “What are you talking about?”

“John’s gone, he’s not here! Alan too! Where are they?” 

“Gordon, settle down,” Scott called over to him from his own bed, “I’m sure there is an explanation.” 

“But what if something’s happened, and they took them away so we wouldn’t find them.” 

“Lights on,” Scott called and the lights brightened in the room. He raised his hand to his mouth and a rattling cough escaped. He calmed it down and looked back to fish, “I doubt that happened.”

“W… what if it did, what if they had to air lift them out, what if…” Gordon was pacing the room swinging his arm about rambling on about all the possible things that could have happened, “What if they thought that we were all vampires and were going to eat them and they went crazy?” Scott and Virgil looked at each other a bit of concern on their faces. Gordon had been the least out of it among them, why was he freaking out all of the sudden. 

“Look, Gordon, calm down for a moment.” 

“I can’t!” Gordon exclaimed. Virgil frowned and got out of bed, walked over to his brother, and tried to hold his arms down for a moment. 

“Careful, you hit your hand and the stitches might come out.” 

“Let go!” Gordon yelled pulling himself free of Virgil causing him to yelp when his broken hand hit the end of one of the beds. 

“Gordon!” Scott yelled, suppressing yet another coughing fit and jumping out of his bed to try and contain his brother’s fanatics. 

“EOS!” Virgil yelled, holding onto his hand, “EOS!!!” 

“WHAT?” EOS’ annoyed voice finally answered.

“Where’s John and Alan?” 

“Brains has them in the MRI room,” EOS replied and then disappeared to be with John again. 

“Did you hear that Gordon,” Virgil asked coming up behind him as he struggled in Scott’s arms, “Brains has them, they’re in the MRI machine. They’re fine.” Gordon suddenly slumped in Scott’s arms, causing him to readjust his hold to keep him upright. Scott looked over Gordon’s head at Virgil with a questioning look. Gordon laid his head on Scott’s chest and started crying. Quickly Virgil helped Scott to get him back in his bed. 

“Gordon, what is going on?” Scott asked as the two eldest hovered over their brother. It took Gordon a moment to quiet himself enough to speak. 

“I woke to the sound of a flatline on the heart monitor. When I sat up and looked, both Alan and John’s monitors were doing it. I looked at their beds and they were gone. You guys were still in your bed, but you were looking down, crying. I heard Kayo crying too, but I couldn’t see her. I looked to the other side, toward the door and Brains was leading two stretchers out, the bodies completely covered with sheets,” Gordon sobbed again, “Then I woke up again, and their beds were empty…” 

“Gordon,” Scott sat down and tried to clear his throat of the annoying feeling of yet another cough, and pulled his brother to him, “It’s okay. They’re awake and just getting some scans done. They’re fine, it was just a dream.” Virgil sat on his other side, leaned over and embraced both his brothers.

“Everything is going to be fine,” Virgil murmured. 

“It seemed so real,” Gordon sobbed. 

“I know,” Scott murmured as he stroked Gordon’s hair. He met eyes with Virgil understanding suddenly flowing between the two of them. Gordon had done something very similar in the past, only he had been unable to move when the panic had hit him. He was still recovering from his hydrofoil accident when he had had a dream where he had failed to recover, and his brothers had abandoned him because of it. He had awoken to an empty room and had started to panic. Scott and Virgil had been just in the hall, and ran to him trying to comfort him just as they were doing now. It took a few minutes, but Gordon finally calmed down.

“Promise me you won’t tell Alan,” Gordon asked with a thick voice. 

“Tell me what?” Alan asked as Kayo pushed him back into the room. He tried to sit up to get a better look at his brothers and Kayo had to push him back down.

“Lay still or I’ll be dumping you on the floor,” She warned as she pushed him back to his bed. 

“Is everything okay?” John asked as he was pushed past. Scott readjusted himself so he was blocking Gordon, giving him time to wipe his eyes and compose himself. 

“Yeah, everything’s find. How about you? How did the scans go?” 

“He’s h…healing just fine,” Brains smiled.

“That’s good to hear,” Virgil smiled, “How about Alan? Is he a lost cause?” 

“Hey, I heard that,” Alan called as he attempted to scoot over to his bed one handed. 

“Alan is fine too. I should probably do scans of everyone who had hit their head,” Brains mused. 

“Ha, I think I’m the only one that didn’t,” Virgil laughed as he followed Brains to help him move John. 

“I didn’t,” Gordon argued.

“Yeah you did,” Scott replied lightly tapping the wound on his head.

“Oh, forgot about that,” Gordon frowned. 

“I didn’t hit my head,” Alan pointed out.

“How do we know you didn’t when you were thrown across the room,” Virgil asked. 

“I think I would have felt it,” Alan frowned, annoyed he had brought that mistake up again. They laughed as everyone settled back down in their beds. 

“John,” EOS called as she appeared on the monitor behind him.

“Yes, EOS?” John asked smiling. 

“Will you really be okay?” She asked her halo fading to various shades. 

“I thinks so,” John reassured her, “Are you okay? I know you were left longer than promised.” 

“I was scared, and angry,” She admitted to the room, “When I was let out, I was so mad at you. I could have thrown you out of the airlock again.” 

“Glad we weren’t in space then,” Brains smiled, “I’m not as b..bad as Virgil, but I’m not big on going outside.” 

“When I saw you, laying there, I was… I was… sad, and… and…”

“I think the word you’re looking for is worried,” Virgil announced. 

“Yes, worried. You humans are so fragile. What if you hadn’t survived. If I had noticed the hacking earlier, I could have stopped it.” 

“Wait, is EOS trying to blame herself?” Alan asked raising an eyebrow. 

“No, EOS. This not your fault,” John shook his head slightly. 

“But, John.”

“No,” John replied, “It is easy to assign blame, but it takes too much time away from the important things.” 

“What are those,” EOS asked. 

“Fixing what went wrong,” Gordon replied, remembering what Scott had said earlier. 

“OH, I am fixing that,” EOS’ ring turned a dark red at that. 

“EOS, what are you planning?” 

“Oh, d…dear, I forgot to block her from the antenna,” Brains frowned. 

“EOS,” John asked again. 

“Kayo brought back a drive from the hackers. I’m using it to pinpoint their location. They are still trying to hack into Thunderbird 5.” 

“EOS, it’s not your place to punish what they have done,” John frowned. 

“These are horrible humans. They hurt you on purpose, all of you,” EOS argued.

“Yes, they did,” Scott confirmed, “But our world is run by laws that we all have agreed on. One of those is that we cannot seek revenge on our own.” 

“EOS, do you have their location,” John asked. 

“I do. They are still in the Indian Ocean, though they seem to be making their way toward the Pacific.” 

“Then you need to contact the GDF. Let them know what has happened. They will arrest those men and punish them within the constraints of the law,” John explained, “We would all do the same.” 

“But…” 

“Then, we can start working on taking back Thunderbird 5. Fix what the hackers did to her, and improve her. Make it so that no one can hack her again.” 

“If you say so, John,” EOS replied a little sadly. 

“We are better than them,” John smiled, “And this is how we can prove it.” 

“I understand,” EOS’ halo disappeared for a moment and then came back a moment later, “Colonel Casey would like to speak to you. Is that okay?” 

“Well, we’d have to sooner or later,” Scott sighed, “Patch her through.” A hologram appeared at the front of the room, Colonel Casey blinked in surprise at the scene before her. 

“Oh my.” 

“Will you be able to track the hackers down,” Scott asked trying to make this a short conversation.

“Y…Yes, I have received the coordinates and will send someone out to arrest them as soon as possible,” She replied frowning at the group before her, “They really did a job on you. Are you all going to be okay?” 

“Yes, though we will be out of commission for a while,” Scott frowned looking around at his brothers, “It’s not just us, but our birds are damaged as well.” 

“I see, if there is anything we can do to help, just let us know,” Colonel Casey frowned, “We’ll also do our best to cover for you while you all heal.” 

“Thank you, Colonel,” Scott nodded another large series of coughs escaping. The hologram disappeared and they all relaxed a little, but a moment later there was the beeping of an incoming transmission, “I hope it’s not the Colonel again.” 

“It’s Lady Penelope,” EOS informed them, “Would you like to speak to her?” 

“Yes,” Virgil nodded as Scott tried to keep another cough at bay. The hologram appeared again, but this time it was the British aristocrat that stood before them. 

“Well, this is a delightful surprise,” She smiled as she saw all five of them awake and sitting up. 

“I’m afraid there’s not much we can do for you at the moment, Penelope,” Scott smiled his voice a little horse from his coughing. 

“I would say not,” She frowned, “I on the other hand have some news for you.” 

“P…p…Penny,” John forced out, “Do you know… how hack my bird?” 

“I know where they got the access code to get into Thunderbird 5’s systems,” Lady Penelope smiled, “A man by the name of Milton VanDeer. He’s worked at Tracy Industries for almost five years now. I am unclear of exactly how he got his hands on the access code, but as soon as he realized that it was something he should not have, he started to think of how much he could get for it. I’ve already contacted the GDF. They’ve arranged a bit of a fib, and are working with the heads of Tracy Industries. I believe the story they are going with is that the access code was to some GDF satellite that Tracy Industries had worked on for them.”

“But the company hasn’t done any work for the GDF,” Virgil frowned coughing a little. 

“They are going to say that it was a secret project that only your father knew the truth about,” Lady Penelope replied. 

“That sounds legit,” Alan smiled. 

“Yes, well, as soon as I know more, I will let you know. For now, please get some rest and take care of yourself.” 

“We will Lady Penelope,” Scott nodded and the hologram disappeared. 

“How long do you think we’ll be grounded,” Alan asked looking down at his broken arm and red brace. 

“W…well, it will take the bones up to three months to p…properly heal,” Brains explained. Once they are, y…you’ll have to start physical therapy to retain full use of them. Especially Virgil’s hand, and John’s shoulder.” 

“Add to the fact, that we can’t really do much about the birds until we are well ourselves,” Virgil frowned as he watched Scott try to hide more coughing.  

“I…I’ve already been thinking about that,” Brains mused as he sat down at the desk, “We c…can’t really leave them out like they are. We n…need to get them back in their hangers.” 

“Well, we still have Thunderbird 1,” Scott pointed out once his coughing fit was over. 

“Yes, I do plan to use her. I think Kayo will have to pilot her if that’s okay,” Brains asked looking to Scott. Scott frowned and then sighed.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice. Not that I don’t trust you Kayo…”

“I know, I’ll be gentle with her,” Kayo smiled knowing how protective each man was with their machine. 

“I’ve done a quick survey of Thunderbird 2’s systems,” Brains pulled up the current schematic of the big green bird, “There is quite a bit of damage to the hull, but mostly cosmetic in nature. The front right thruster is damaged beyond repair, it will be some time before she is airborne again. And it looks as though Gordon didn’t lower the landing gears before crashing.”

“Gordon,” Virgil frowned his own cough escaping his lips.

“Hey, I was doing good to get her on the landing strip. Be grateful I didn’t land her in the water.” 

“Like you did with my bird,” Kayo smirked. 

“Ah, yeah, sorry,” Gordon lowered his head. 

“Nah, I’m impressed you got her home. Thanks.” Gordon looked up and gave her a weak smile. 

“We’ll have to use Thunderbird 1 to pull 2 away from the hanger door, and then we can use the winches in the hanger to pull her in. Then we can use Thunderbird 1 again to get S out of the water and onto a trailer and into the hanger as well.” 

“What about my bird,” Alan asked.

“That is the tricky one. She is too big for Thunderbird 1 to lift on her own. We may have to find a way to cover her up until we get Thunderbird 2 fixed.” 

“I don’t like leaving her out there like that,” Alan whined. 

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Scott frowned, “Once they’re back in their silos, how long till repairs are done?” 

“Well, I went ahead and ordered the parts for Thunderbird 2, but it will take a couple of weeks to arrive. Once they are here, we may be able to at least get her airborne in another week. I won’t know what parts are needed for Thunderbird S or 3 until we get them into the hanger for me to inspect.” 

“Thunderbird S is going to be awhile,” Kayo sighed, “She lost a wing and her tail.” 

“Oh, d…dear,” Brains frowned, “I’ll put in the orders for replacements right away.” 

“Don’t worry about her too much,” Kayo smiled, “We need to get the main birds up and going before you worry about mine.” 

“I’m afraid I have to agree with you on that,” Scott nodded once again trying to suppress a cough, “Once we’re clear to leave this room we can help with the repairs as much as possible.” 

“Scott,” Virgil frowned as his brother. 

“What,” Scott asked, as he absently rubbed his chest, looking surprised at the accusing tone Virgil was using. 

“Brains, have you listened to Scott’s lungs lately?” 

“N…No, I haven’t,” Brains looked up confused by the sudden change of topic. Virgil pulled himself out of bed, groaning a little and made his way over to the supply cabinet. He pulled out a stethoscope and returned to Scott’s bed. 

“Lean forward,” Virgil ordered. Scott mumbled something but did as he was told. “Okay, breath in, and out.” Scott followed the command of his little brother as he moved the stethoscope to various areas of his back, chest, and sides. Finally he took the instrument away and frowned at Scott. 

“What?” Scott asked. 

“How do you feel?” 

“What? Fine.” 

“Really?” 

“I’m a little chilly, but otherwise I’m fine.” 

“No your not,” Virgil frowned, “I think you’ve got pneumonia.” 

“I do not,” Scott argued as another, stronger, set of coughs overtook him. Once he was done, he moaned. 

“Are you sure about that,” Virgil asked covering his mouth and coughing a little as he looked down at his brother who had fallen back into his bed. 

“Fine,” Scott pouted. 

“Speaking of which,” Brains approached Virgil and took the stethoscope from his hands, “I’ve been meaning to listen to your lungs too.” 

“Mine? I’m not the one that breathed in an ocean,” Virgil argued. 

“No, but you may have breathed in some vomit or other gastro juices,” Brains explained as he preformed the same exam Virgil had just given Scott. 

“Well, do you hear anything,” Virgil asked as he took in a large breath wheezing a little. 

“N…no, but you are coughing, and that was most certainly a wheeze,” Brains frowned, “I think it best we treat you for it just to be safe.” 

“Fine,” Virgil grumbled. 

“Get to bed, you,” Gordon grinned pointing to Virgil’s bed.

“Oh hush,” Virgil complained as he passed Gordon’s bed. 

“We agreed didn’t we, I was in charge of making sure you took care of yourself.” 

“Only when John is in space,” Virgil argued. 

“Then I order you to bed,” John smiled not quite knowing what was going on, but joining the fun none the less. 

“Oh, who do I get to boss around,” Alan asked eagerly. 

“Gordon,” Virgil shot back. 

“Aw, that’s no fun,” Alan frowned. 

“So when do the rest of us get to get out of here,” Gordon asked as Brains went to work re-inserting IVs into Scott and Virgil, setting them up with antibiotics and fluids. 

“W..well, y..you would probably be okay to leave today,” Brains announced as he finished up his work. 

“Just me?” Gordon asked looking at Alan and John.

“I want to keep those two for a bit longer. Make sure there aren’t any other i…issues,” Brains explained.

“Aw, man,” Alan complained, “It’s so boring in here.” 

“Sorry, Bro. Tell you what, I’ll bring some games in we can play,” Gordon smiled at his brother, “But first, I’ve been away from the water much too long. I need to go for a swim.” 

“No diving, and I’d p…prefer if you just lounged, you don’t want to use your hand just yet.” 

“Oh all right, but a nice dip will still be better than laying here all day,” Gordon jumped out of bed again and was out the door before anyone could stop him. 

“H…he’s going to swim anyways, isn’t he,” Brains asked.

“Probably,” Alan confirmed. 

“We never could keep him dry for long,” John smiled. Virgil and Scott didn’t say anything, but they knew that Gordon had already forgotten about his earlier dream. 

 

That night, Gordon, tired from his many laps up and down the pool, slept in his own room. The rest of the family stayed in the infirmary napping throughout the evening and night. There seemed to be someone awake at any one time trying to keep themselves busy with what little there was to do. It was probably close to two in the morning when the door to the infirmary hissed open. John was awake at the end of the room with a small light over his shoulder as he read his book. He looked up to see who had entered and found Gordon looking down at him. 

“What’s the matter,” John asked, inserting a peace of scrap paper so he wouldn’t lose his spot. 

“Nothing,” Gordon replied as he looked at each of the beds to make sure their occupants were still breathing. 

“Come here,” John motioned with his one hand. Gordon crawled into the bed and John lifted his comforter so that Gordon could join him underneath. “Did you have a bad dream?” Gordon sat up next to John and leaned down on his good shoulder nodding in response to John’s question. John wasn’t surprised at Gordon’s sudden appearance. While he had been off in space during most of Gordon’s recovery, he had heard the worried communications from his older brothers about the nightmares that troubled the young fish, and annoyed that there had been nothing he could do to help. 

“You can keep reading,” Gordon whispered as he leaned forward to open the book for John.

“You want me to read to you?” 

“Sure,” Gordon nodded as he curled up under John’s arm ready to turn the page when needed. 

“Barbicane, however, lost not one moment amid all the enthusiasm of which he had become the object. His first care was to reassemble his colleagues…” Gordon fell asleep almost immediately, John looked down at his head, his hair still smelling of salt water from the pool, and smiled sadly. He knew that this wouldn’t be the last night Gordon would need his brother’s comfort. He looked up across the room at Alan and wondered if he too would start having nightmares. John knew that they all had experience with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Scott had taken time off after the events that had led to him receiving the medal of valor. He hadn’t been sure if he wanted to get into a plane again, but their father had helped him through it, and he returned to flying with vigor. Virgil had first experienced it when they had started International Rescue. He had not been used to the action and danger in which they willing put themselves into and shadows of the first few rescues started to chase him even during the waking hours. He had turned to his music as therapy. One could usually tell if he was playing for pleasure or to drive out the sounds of the previous rescue by the type of music he played. If the music was loud and fast, he was challenging himself, working on his skill and trying to improve his methods. If the music was slow and melodic, he was trying to calm himself and convince himself that it was over and everything was okay. 

Even John struggled with the disease. He had been in space and was helping a new engineer repair something on their shuttle. It was the engineer’s first space flight and he had been excited, and reminded John of Alan a bit. However, the engineer had caught and tore a large hole in his suit from the damaged piece of metal they were trying to repair. John hadn’t been near him, but heard the exclamation and turned to look as the engineer had forgotten his training and drew in a large breath. John had yelled for him to breath out as he worked his way over to the man, but it had been too late. Two of the other crew members, listening in, had to come out and retrieve both of them. They canceled their mission and returned to earth. John spent the next few months in therapy. He almost thought that he would never return to space again. His father and Scott had known, but he had kept it from his other siblings, thinking that they wouldn’t understand. 

Even Alan had experienced it, not from his own accident, though he had had quite a few on the race track, but from Gordon’s. He had nightmares for months after, dreaming that his brother had died and that somehow it had been his fault. He had even refused to ride on a boat, or even go swimming. Afraid that something would happen to him if he did. Every bang or pop that happened around him made him jump and hide behind one of the others. For Alan it had taken Gordon himself to convince him that there had been nothing to be afraid of, and that everything would be okay. 

John looked around the dim room at his brothers. Everything would be okay. They would make it past their injuries and sickness, they would strengthen themselves again, and their birds would be as good as new. They would reinstate the organization and start rescuing people once again. He knew there would be bumps along the way, but they were Tracy’s. They had each other, and would do everything they could to make it through. 

John turned back to his book and started reading again, “An observer endued with an infinite range of vision, and placed in that unknown center around which the entire world revolves, might have beheld myriads of atoms filling all space during the chaotic epoch of the universe. Little by little, as ages went on, a change took place; a general law of attraction manifested itself, to which the hitherto errant atoms became obedient: these atoms combined together chemically according to their affinities, formed themselves into molecules, and composed those nebulous masses with which the depths of the heavens are strewed. These masses became immediately endued with a rotary motion around their own central point. This center, formed of indefinite molecules, began to revolve around its own axis during its gradual condensation; then, following the immutable laws of mechanics, in proportion as its bulk diminished by condensation, its rotary motion became accelerated, and these two effects continuing, the result was the formation of one principal star, the center of the nebulous mass.”

Yes, Jeff Tracy had been their star, the center of their universe. Even after his death, IR continued to be their connection to him, and IR wasn’t dead, nor were they. As long as International Rescue was needed, they would survive, they would go on, and they would do what their father taught them. Save the world, one rescue at a time.  


End file.
